


Call It In The Air

by TheUglyCygnet



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bullying, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Follows canon a bit but not really, M/M, Original Character(s), Second Year Hinata Shouyou, Second Year Kageyama Tobio, Second Year Tsukishima Kei, Second Year Yachi Hitoka, Second Year Yamaguchi Tadashi, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26316250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUglyCygnet/pseuds/TheUglyCygnet
Summary: In this world, everyone is born with dice that can determine their success in life. Ordinary people are born with 6 sided die, fewer get around 10 sides, and only the extremely lucky ones get around 20 sides.Tadashi Yamaguchi was born with a coin, something no one thought was possible. All his life, he had been the odd one out, bullies abused him, and friends pitied him. But all he wanted was to be normal.Kei Tsukishima was born with a d17, something most people would kill for. But he hated it. He hated the overall unfairness of it. He didn't deserve to be put on a high pedestal because of some object assigned to him at birth.There's no way to know for sure what choices lead to certain outcomes. The future wasn't something anyone could predict. In the end, the best anyone could do is toss the coin and call it in the air.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	1. So It Works Like This

The concept of this universe was inspired by  
u/0x726564646974 from  
r/WritingPrompts on Reddit who says, "[WP] Everyone is born with a dice they need to roll before attempting anything major. The super powered are those who are born with more than a 20 sided dice allowing them to do feats beyond human. An ordinary human usually has a six sided dice. Despite being born with a coin you still want to be a hero."

Or y'know, basically D&D rules, but in real life.

You can skip this chapter if you want to, it just explains some things about how the whole thing with the dice works in specific scenarios. It gets explained in the story later anyway while different scenarios happen.

\----------

In this world, people are born with a dice in their hand. Every time someone wants an extra piece of luck on their hands, they can roll that dice and get results depending on what they roll.  
The most basic die is a d6. Almost no one gets a d5 or lower. The most lucky ones reach up to d25, even higher.

If the number rolled is part of the lower 25% of the number of sides of the dice, the quality of a certain skill is lowered by that number. if the number is part of the higher 75%, then the quality is increased by that number.

A swimmer may want her cardiovascular endurance to go up when she is in a marathon, so she rolls her d6 dice and lands a 4, so her endurance goes up by 40%, but her speed relies on her initial skill.

A student may be taking a multiple choice exam and wants to use his dice to help him choose the correct answer for a question he doesn't understand. He will roll his d14 dice. He gets an 8. That doesn't mean he chooses the eighth option, it means that he has an 80% chance of choosing the correct answer. If he gets a 3, however, then his chance of getting a correct answer is decreased by 30%.

Any time someone rolls their dice, the last face that was facing up will stay facing up until intentionally rolled again. Someone may roll a 5 but end up 'accidentally' dropping the dice to change it, it will still stay as five facing up.

Sometimes, citizens might want to engage in a duel, they can ask anyone from anywhere, no matter how different their dice numbers are. When someone challenges you to a duel, you're not allowed to decline. The duel happens by both rolling their dice. The one who ends up having the the lower value, despite what their overall dice number is, has to do a number of favors for the one with the higher value. The number is taken by subtracting the loss from the win. If a d17 duels with a d6, but the d17 rolls a 1 and the d6 rolls a 4, the d17 has to do 3 favors, since that's the difference between the 1 and the 4, for the d6. Each moment that passes without the favor being redeemed will keep the creditor on the debtor's mind. The farther away from the creditor, the more agony the debtor will be in. Only after the favor is completed will the debtor be freed.

This might be updated as the story goes along.


	2. I Was Looking At The Bug

The ball landed in the opposite team's court, the sound of it hitting the floor echoing throughout the gym. No one had to turn their heads to know that it was their team that had scored yet again. 

"Dumbass! You jumped too late again!"

"Well maybe if you weren't screaming blue murder I would actually be able to hear what my team was saying!"

"Says the guy screaming back at me!"

"Asshole!"

Yamaguchi Tadashi directed his attention to the scoreboard, deciding his teammate's discord wasn't worth his full attention. It was all just friendly banter anyway, Kageyama vs. Hinata, something they did all the time, all the damn time, did they never run out of breath?

He didn't hate them, he just thought it would be better if they could put that same passion they had while arguing into their playing. He was especially disappointed in Hinata for the absolute waste of a d20. Yes, you heard that right, Hinata was born with a 20 sided dice that guaranteed him a successful future in any career that he chose. And here he was, making a fool out of himself as if he didn't have Karasuno's reputation to uphold.

As Tadashi studied the scoreboard he found himself utterly unsurprised to see Ennoshita, the team's new captain, flipping the 23 to a 24 for his team's tally, bringing his team to a match point. As for the other team's score, he didn't even want to know.

The captain approached the court to mediate the fight after realizing that the two second years weren't going to stop their bickering any time soon. 

"Hey guys, I appreciate that you both have very loud personalities-"

"Emphasis on the loud-"

"But don't you think that's a little too much for the first day for our newest members?"

A split second of silence followed Ennoshita's statement where everyone thought that the power duo had finally shut up for the sake of the two new first years. But of course, all good things must come to an end.

"Hinata was yelling at me."

"Well, you started it!" 

And just like that, another debate was in session and Tadashi's somewhat unpleasant mood had now turned outright sour. 

Tsukishima Kei smirked from the other side of the net at the not-so-subtle look of distaste on his best friend's face. He was annoyed too, but if it meant seeing Tadashi scrunch up his face like an angry kitten, then he was all for it. 

Tadashi could feel the smugness just radiating from beyond the net and he knew, he just knew that Tsukki was being a jerk, having fun at his expense. 

He steadily tore his eyes away from the board and looked at his soon-to-be-not best friend if he kept being an absolute ass. 

"You wanna take a picture? It lasts longer," Tadashi finally snapped.

"Wow, plus points for originality there," Kei's smirk only grew, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm.

"Like you could do better," he challenged, running his fingers through his dark green hair, hoping that it would cool down his nerves. He could feel his face turning red from embarrassment, and he just didn't want to give Kei that satisfaction. The sarcastic one continued, saying,

"You know I could. Besides, I wasn't even looking at you. I was looking at-" 

With that, Kei began to scan his brain for anything else he could have been looking at, but found nothing except for the bug that was resting peacefully on the net in front of him as if there wasn't an argument going on nearby.

"...this bug."

Tadashi scoffed and rolled his eyes playfully as Kei snickered, both of them aware of the obvious lie. As the pretend spitefulness faded away, a genuine smile could be found on both of their faces, and they predisposed themselves for the next rally.

Everyone waited for the whistle to signal the serve. Who was serving now? It didn't matter to him. In this moment, there was nothing more important than the boy in front of him, whose smallest smile always managed to light up his darkest nights.

"Tanaka, nice serve!" 

The ball sailed from behind Tadashi to above the net, heading towards Hinata's direction. A clunky receive from the redhead sent the ball barely flying to Nishinoya, who was also having a hard time adjusting to being setter for Karasuno's 5 vs. 5 practice match. 

The ball was set and in the air, and both Hinata and Kinoshita sped towards the net to get ready for the spike. But Hinata had stepped forward earlier than Kinoshita, a dead giveaway that he was going to be the one to spike the ball. Of course it was entirely possible that it was just a ruse to trick the blockers, but when it came to the names Nishinoya and Hinata, especially since it was still their first try at a game as official setter and wing spiker respectively, strategy just didn't seem to fit in the same line of thought. 

Tadashi got ready to jump, his fellow middle blocker- a first year- taking that as his cue to get ready to jump too. In a second the ball was on the opposing court's floor and the set ended, with an ending score of 25 - 6 in the favor of Tadashi's team.

\----------

Tadashi tossed the keys in the air and caught them as they fell, letting the jingle fill the silence that was brought upon him and his reticent friend as they walked side by side. 

They always walked home together, their houses being only a little way away from each other's. Today they had left school later than usual, having stayed to clean up the gym, so Ennoshita had given them the responsibility of the key. 

Humming a little tune to himself, he thought about the things that had transpired within the day. The easy win, the irritation, his smile, the banter, his smile, being introduced to the new first years, his smile, and his smile-

What? Tadashi was only human. Even though he couldn't care less anymore about love or where to find it but he swore up and down that Tsukishima Kei was the most beautiful person he'd ever met. He knew that any human that wasn't dead could appreciate his tall stature, sharp eyes, his slender but lean figure, and his overall attractiveness, and it hurt him to know that. It meant there would always be someone out there that would want him as much as he wanted him. And with the way his odds were, owning a two-sided coin, he wouldn't ever amount to much compared to them, even if they had a three-sided dice. He was at the lowest of the low. 

He shoved the keys into his pocket, his downcast mood sinking further under as his fingers brushed against a small piece of metal, a coin, the coin that had been the curse he had since the beginning of his life.

From the start, everyone knew he had no chance to be normal. The coin didn't change his appearance, his personality, didn't hurt anyone or destroy anything, but as soon as people heard he was a 'd2', he was shunned from groups everywhere, even those that claimed to be open and accepting. And as if that wasn't enough, there were bullies left and right duelling him unfairly for the chance to force favors from him. 

Even the people he thought could be his friend ended up to be just people who felt sorry for him. They stuck around, sure. But they still treated him like he was some pet to be taken care of, when all he wanted was to be treated like a normal person.

Then he met Kei. He remembers it like it was only yesterday, the same unmistakably self-righteous smirk, the same sly tone of voice, the things that never changed about Tsukishima. Except for the fact that before, they were complete strangers. Now, they were almost as close as close could be. 

Little Yamaguchi Tadashi was minding his own business at the community park that day, half understanding by now that no one would ever want to be his friend. He chose a spot to sit, under the slide, where he didn't have to bother anyone with his existence, when suddenly he was yanked out of his spot and shoved into the wet grass and coarse soil.

He looked up to see a group of three kids towering over him, the one leading them a boy that he immediately identified as Akiru Kaneko. 

The kids with him stood like bodyguards, their glares and smirks showing Tadashi that they were not to be messed with. Akiru himself stood arms crossed, fiery red and yellow hair standing up like flames fueled by his utter hatred of the boy cowering before him, his brown eyes boring into his newly found prey.

"D2! I challenge you to a duel right now," little Akiru declared.

D2. That wasn't even his name, yet he knew it was his challenge to take on. No one was allowed to decline a duel. If they could, Tadashi would have been long free from the manipulating grip of Akiru and his goons. Offering a silent prayer to whichever God would hear him, he begrudgingly lifted himself up and tried to stand tall, ending up shorter by a few inches, wincing as he felt a pain in his right elbow.

Using his better hand, he took his coin out of his pocket, the one everyone mockingly called a 'd2'. Akiru held a d7 in front of him. He was one of the lucky ones to get more than six sides on his dice. Even if it was above the average count by just one side, it still made a considerable difference.

The other kids with Akiru had pretty good dice with them too. One of them was a d9, even higher than Akiru. The other one was a d6. It was the average, but Tadashi was willing to kill to even be just an average boy. 

They both tossed their respective devices, letting their eyes follow it as gravity pulled it back down. Catching it, they opened their palm to show what they had landed. Akiru pulled Tadashi's wrist harshly towards him, excited to see just how much he had won by.

The coin was facing upwards, the amputated head of the model on it showing Akiru just what he needed to understand that Tadashi had landed on heads. Akiru had trouble counting, you see. Even if he was already in the second grade, it would take him a prolonged amount of time to calculate. His parents never taught him properly since they despised him for his less sided dice, them both being d16s. So he always had to resort to embarrassing himself while he slowly counted the dots on his opponent's dice.

But Tadashi was just too easy to gang up on that he never had to worry about embarrassing himself ever again. All he had to do was check heads or tails.

"Ohh look at Mr. Lucky Heads over here," Akiru sneered, pushing Tadashi's hand back to him, the sheer force causing the d2 to fall back on the ground.

"But no matter how lucky you get, tails will always only amount to one," he continued, kneeling and placing his unwelcome face near Tadashi's to try and intimidate him even more, "and heads will always only count as two."

He giggled as he jumped back on his feet, ready to see just how much he had rolled. The glee was immediately wiped from his face as his die stared up at him, a huge red dot on the face facing him. He had landed a one on his d7 dice. He was such an embarrassment.

With that, he dropped the dice in the grass and staggered backwards. He'd really done it now, such an embarrassment. Imagine being in debt to a lowly d2.

Tadashi slowly crawled over to see the dice for himself, knowing that his opponent had no plan of picking it up and showing it to him any time soon.

As soon as he saw the singular red dot standing out from the brown, wilted grass, he knew what was causing his persecutor so much panic, and he immediately decided he was going to let the favor he had just won from the duel go. 

He remembered the days when he would have to do favors for Akiru and his friends because they constantly challenged him to duels. He thought back to the humiliation and shame he felt when being bossed around to do the most menial tasks, and he decided that that wasn't something he would wish on his worst enemy. He said,

"It's okay, it's okay! Hey, guess what, I can just ask you to blink once for your favor. You won't have to do anyth-"

"Shut up, d2! You think you're such a saint to "show me mercy', huh?!" Akiru shot back, 

"I never said-"

"You're nothing but a useless, annoying, good for nothing, d2 wretch!"

Akiru lifted him from the ground, leveling their faces. Before Tadashi could react, there was a fist swinging at his face with full force. It made contact, and he found himself on the ground once again. 

This wasn't the first time it had happened, when Tadashi hadn't met the standards of the bullies. So everytime it came to this he just zoned out and let it happen to him. He figured, they're gonna do it eventually, it's better to get it over with.

But as he expected the next swing of a fist to connect with his cheek, he heard an unimpressed voice sound out from behind him.

"Lame."

He looked to the owner of the impassive voice to find a boy who looked a little, no, a lot too tall for his age, with disheveled yet somehow kempt blonde hair contrasting the black-framed glasses sitting lightly on top of his nose. 

"Hey, nerd, go mind your own business!" Akiru challenged.

"What did you just call me?" the boy said, stepping closer to Akiru, showing him just how much more height he had as an advantage over the shorter boy.

"Akiru, let's go, it's not worth it," one of the other bullies said.

Akiru stayed for a moment, the desperation to prove himself overshadowing most of his common sense. In the end, he ran away with his friends, probably finished with their bullying quota for the day.

Tadashi watched them run away, wanting to be strong enough to defend himself like that, that just a single look could send bad people scurrying away. He looked to his knight in shining armor, surprised to find him already walking away.

The boy's long legs had already taken him a considerable space away from the scene of the bullying, so Tadashi stood up and jogged over to him to catch up. 

"Hey," he panted, out of breath from the distance he had travelled. The boy took no notice.

"Hey!" Tadashi said again, determined to express his gratitude. Now noticing that the boy had headphones on, he decided it would be a good idea to get his attention by removing the headphones.

In what seemed like a split second, his right arm had been slapped out of the way, the pain in his elbow only intensifying. He stumbled back a little, clutching his forearm in pain. Well he had certainly gotten the boy's attention now. 

"What are you doing?" the boy asked, face and voice completely devoid of emotion, save for a scrap of amusement.  
  
"I- I just wanted to um, u-uh to-" 

"Dear God, spit it out already."

The shorter boy let his breathing steady for a second as the taller boy raised an eyebrow, now noticing that he might have actually scared the kid, not that he cared much.

"I w-wanted to say thank you."

"For what, kid?"

"Hey! D-dont call me kid. We're basically the same age... um, t-thank you for saving me back there."

"I didn't save you. You're just as lame as they are."

The boy reached his hands up to put his headphones back on when he heard Tadashi say something that he didn't quite understand. 

"So the news really reached everyone, huh?" Tadashi mumbled, thinking that the boy had called him lame for being a d2.

"What are you even talking about? What news?" the boy asked.

"W-well, you know, the news that I'm a useless d2 wretch..."

The boy hesitated before stepping closer to Tadashi, his sharp golden brown eyes piercing daggers into the green haired boy's skin, their noses only inches away from each other. He looked him straight in the eyes as if he was searching for something. 

Tadashi's hazel eyes widened in surprise as the weird stranger stared him down. It was like a while ago with Akiru, when he had tried to intimidate him, except this time, he didn't feel so afraid.

The boy leaned back, shoving his hands into his sweater pockets. He said,

"Nope. Nothing different about you than anyone else in this  
depressing town. You could be a d100 for all I care, you're still just as lame as all the others."

"Y-you really think so?"

Tadashi's small voice sounded so frail yet excited in that moment that it made the stranger review what exactly it was that he said that made this boy think he was complimenting him, when he meant it to be an insult. Tadashi pressed on,

"Do you really think I'm just like the others?"

"Let's just say I don't believe in all that dice crap. I don't even know how a d2 would work, but I'm sure that it has nothing to do with how great a person can become. You want to be successful, kid? Go nuts. Your... two-sided dice? Yeah, that doesn't matter."

Tadashi focused on the boy, never expecting him to be able to encourage him while saying those words in such a derogatory tone. It was the first time anyone had ever talked to him the same way they would talk to anyone else. For the first time in... ever, he felt human.

"I- thank you," Tadashi chimed, a smile slowly creeping it's way onto his face.

"Sure."

And they stood in silence, the blonde analyzing the boy that he had now grown quite interested in, the green haired boy barely cradling his injured arm, the pain long forgotten. 

"M-my name's T-Tadashi, Tadashi Yamaguchi," he said, gesturing to himself, "And you are?" he asked, shakily extending his hand for a handshake. He mentally facepalmed when he realized that the action seemed too formal for a casual conversation.

But before he could draw his hand back to offer a friendly smile instead, the stranger took his outstretched hand in his and gave him a warm, forthright handshake. He said, "Tsukishima." 

Despite the gentleness of the handshake however, pain shot up Tadashi's arm. He cried out in agony, holding the said arm close to his chest again. The stranger retracted his arm, thinking that he had done something wrong, before realizing that the shorter boy may have hurt his arm in the fight with the bullies. 

"You should probably get that checked, right?" he asked, concern showing on his face for once.

"I probably should, Tsukki."

A second passed before Kei could register what his new acquaintance had just called him. He immediately shot back, 

"What?"

"Tsukishima is too long. Besides, Tsukki sounds nice doesn't it?"

There was a blindingly bright smile on the more emotional boy's face. It was bright to the extent that it even enticed the less emotional one to smile back. Kei bit the inside of his cheek, deciding it was too early to show any sign of interest in this conversation, any sign of interest in this boy. Instead, he hummed a yes in response and said,

"Just don't get too comfortable with it. We're not friends."

"Oh... okay then."

Tadashi's smile faded slowly from his face like a fire running out of fuel. Tsukishima must have thought so too, because what he felt at that moment felt ice cold, like the warmth and color of his world had went away. He decided he wanted to see that smile again, so he caught himself and back tracked, saying,

"Why don't I walk you home to get you patched up and make sure you don't run into anymore trouble, hm?"

Tadashi nodded shyly, a little smile gracing his small face. 

"That'd be perfect, Tsukki!~"

As he followed the more spirited boy home, Kei thought to himself, who exactly was he kidding? He was definitely interested in this conversation after all. He relaxed himself and let a small smile make its way onto his face. 

And he was definitely interested in this boy.


	3. It's Called Military Time

A car darted past the pair as they walked, splashing water everywhere, getting Kei's shoes slightly wet. Kei's glasses in particular had splashes of muddy water, obscuring his line of vision for the moment. He was thankful, at least, that he was nearer to the road than Tadashi, who was left unbothered by the effects of the discourteous driver.

He removed his glasses to clean them, wiping them on the edge of his jacket. As soon as he did, he immediately regret not taking the time to get the specific cloth to clean the lens because it smudged the mud even more.

He wrapped his headphones around his neck, having to do that to be able to put his glasses back on properly.

Now able to hear the sounds surrounding him, he noticed that Tadashi was pretty quiet for a walk home after practice. He could've sworn his friend was humming something a while ago, some silly little tune that matched his cheerful personality. He looked over to see him with his gaze downcast, feet kicking a pebble as he dragged them across the concrete. Something was definitely up with him.

Kei sighed, putting on his foggy glasses, the mark of the streaks now in full effect. He should have been more careful, now he could barely see two feet in front of him. Tadashi heard his heavy exhale and turned to him, wanting to address the potential problem. He asked,

"What's up, buttercup?"

Kei could never get used to the random, out of place nicknames his friend would give him, but he supposed it made him happy. And if Tadashi was happy then so was he. 

Nothing in particular was wrong for himself, to be honest. He just felt like something was off with Tadashi, like he had been overthinking again or something. He would have directed the question back to him, but it just felt too defensive, so he settled for a sardonic remark,

"The sky," he deadpanned.

"Wow, look at you, Mr. Comedian," Tadashi commented, a smile now replacing his earlier frown. But it looked too strained, too fake.

Kei decided that whatever was making his friend feel down was probably nothing too heavy if he could grin and bear it. He didn't mean to be mean, but Tadashi was a total crybaby, and he'd have broken down by now if it was really that bad. 

Tadashi asked again, this time the question more specific, "But seriously, Tsukki. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Yamaguchi. You've got nothing to worry about over here." 

Before Tadashi could ask again to make sure he was okay, like he always would until he would give a straight answer, Kei decided to stay one step ahead of him and ask the question instead, not caring anymore if it sounded like changing the subject.

But as he opened his mouth to ask, Tadashi's phone sounded out. He checked the caller ID before answering and putting the phone to his ear. All Kei could hear were the broken sentences that his friend offered in reply, because he couldn't hear the rest of the conversation. He assumed his mom was calling to ask where he was at such a late hour, so he let himself zone out again. It was only when he heard the pitch rising in Tadashi's voice that he realized something was wrong and there was a certain possibility that the caller was not his mother.

"Its fine, I'll help you look... Alright, I'll meet you there. Bye."

Kei cocked his head to the side, raising a brow in silent question of who the caller was and why he was in distress. Tadashi lowered his phone, a sharp inhale preparing him for what he was about to say,

"It was Tanaka. He needs me to go back to school-"

"Right now? It's 22:00, what can he possibly need you for that can't wait 'til tomorrow?"

"What the hell is 22:00?"

"It means 10 PM, dimwit. Stop trying to change the subject."

"Oh, you and your smart sounding words that don't even make sense. You know clock numbers end at 12, right?"

"Yamaguchi, I swear-"

"He-" Tadashi cut his friend off, realizing that Kei wasn't going to back down. He stopped himself, lowering his voice for the sake of his senior, "he lost his dice..."

Kei stared in disbelief at the phone in his best friend's hand, as if he could somehow let his glare travel through and reach Tanaka. The third year himself must be freaking out right now, losing a dice being one of the worst things to happen to a person, but he must have wasted one extra second scrolling down his contacts to find Yamaguchi in the Y section when he could have called Kei instead.

Why was he so concerned that it was Tadashi he had called, you ask? Well, he had been friends with the freckled frenzy of a boy for so long that he knew by now how upset he could get when he learned about someone not taking care of their dice, especially if it was an above average one. And Tanaka was a... d12, wasn't he? That was way higher than a number above average. Well, shit.

"And he wants you to help him look for it?" Kei questioned, getting just a little bit infuriated by the events that were unfolding.

"I have the key, Tsukki. It had to be me-"

"No, Yamaguchi, we have the key. He could've-"

He decided not to continue that sentence and pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses, trying to relieve some of the pressure so that he could stay calm to prevent the possible breakdown his friend might have when they find the misplaced d12. Seeing the trouble he had caused his friend, Tadashi immediately turned around and offered to go back to school alone so that Kei could get home earlier and rest. But Kei had more to say,

"No, I'm walking with you, did you not hear what I said a while ago about how late it is?"

"You walk home alone all the time after you drop me off at my place. I'll be fine."

"That's when it's still light out, though."

"I have the streetlights to guide me," Tadashi defended, starting to walk towards the direction of the school.

"Yamaguchi."

Tsukishima insisted, grabbing on to his wrist before he could get too far away. Both the hand and the voice of his friend made Tadashi stop dead in his tracks, knowing Kei was now dead serious.

"I'm not gonna leave you alone." 

Tadashi whipped his head around, annoyed as hell that his friend was still fighting with him on this when it was just a stupid dice. Well, he supposed it was a stupid dice anyway if the owner had been careless enough to lose it despite its high value. Even if he himself had a coin that caused him so much pain and sorrow, he still took care of it. Why couldn't others appreciate the good things that were given to them? The boy latching on to his wrist right now had a d17, he wouldn't understand his situation-

Except now looking at his golden-brown eyes he realized just why Kei had been worried about the senior calling him and not anyone else. He did understand his situation, didn't he? He was the only one who understood. Kei's eyes softened as a wave of guilt washed over him. He was so busy thinking about those who couldn't appreciate what they had when he hadn't been able to appreciate this good thing he had with his friend either. Tearing up a bit, he started thinking, he was just too damn emotional.

"Do you promise?" he said, freeing his wrist from Kei's hand and interlocking their fingers instead. He already knew the answer, but what was the harm in asking again?

"I wouldn't be clutching on to your hand as tightly as I was right now if I didn't."

Finally Kei had gotten to see that genuine smile that he was missing. There was still pain hidden beneath the surface for sure, but he was getting there.

"Well come on then, that dice isn't going to find itself now, is it?"

And with that Tadashi sped uphill, which Kei was grateful for, even if it almost caused him to fall forward because their hands were still linked with each other's. The smile that the green haired boy had given him earlier had made his face feel like it was on fire. It was a good thing that it was dark now, he thought, or else the shorter boy would see just how flustered he made him.

_Goddammit Yamaguchi, why'd you have to be so perfect?_

As they ran towards the school, they both thought that no matter how tonight would end, they both knew it was going to be okay. They were going to be okay. They had each other, after all.

In the end, that's all they really needed.

\----------

The metal doors creaked open as Kei and Tadashi entered with the sole purpose of finding the missing d12. Tanaka's older sister Saeko had come along as well, apoligizing profusely, despite the number of times they assured her it was alright, insisting that she would drive them both home when they had to leave since it was late and she had to trouble them to come back to school because of her younger brother's ignorance.

Tanaka had volunteered to search the club room alone while the other three searched the gym. He decided he didn't want to deal with the shame of seeing the juniors stuck at school after regular hours because of him. Especially since Kei had given him a look when they had arrived. Honestly, that was all it took to realize what he had done wrong, done wrong concerning Tadashi at least, even if no words were spoken.

When asked where he last remembered seeing his dice, Tanaka said he had no idea where he last used it or could've lost it, so Saeko travelled to the second level to search the bleachers, convinced that he dropped it while running around since that's one of the times he wouldn't realize he'd dropped the dice.

Kei resorted to going to the game supplies room where they kept the net, balls, and bottles. Tadashi trudged off to the cleaning supplies room a while ago, muttering something about how Tanaka always hung his jacket on the mop rack even though it was made specifically for the mops.

Kei's goal right now was to be able to return the dice to the Tanakas before Tadashi could even catch a glance at it to completely avoid him holding the dice that could never be his. 

Moments later, Kei had already emptied every basket and opened every drawer in the room but still had not been able to find the missing dice. The sound of the gym door going open and shut told him that Tanaka must have been done searching the club room and was now either going to inform them that he found it or help look for it here.

He slowly got up and out of the room, deciding he was done looking for the dice in there where it was less likely to be in. 

Tanaka's voice bounced around the empty gym, not taking much volume for everyone to hear. Except it wouldn't if the door to the cleaning supplies room wasn't closed. 

"It wasn't there, you guys, any luck finding it in here, maybe?" Tanaka asked,voice slightly wavering and eyes flitting around as if that would help him remember where else he could have dropped the dice.

"No, Sir," Saeko called out from the second level, already making her way down the steps to her younger brother, sensing panic in his voice.

Kei jerked his thumb towards the cleaning supplies room, maintaining eye contact with the younger Tanaka, hoping that would be enough to let him know that he was going to check on Tadashi's progress. A small nod of confirmation sent Kei towards the said room, lightly jogging to not waste time since it was all the way on the other side of the gym.

Knocking lightly on the door, he called out to his friend to make his entrance known. Receiving no response, his heartbeat picked up a little, and a chain of possible scenarios played in his brain. Hoping to immediately disprove those theoretical scenarios, he quickly opened the door which, fortunately for him, was unlocked. 

"Yam-"

He cut his sentence short, seeing his friend was alive and, well, not so well. He was sitting on the floor, hugging his knees and leaning against a broom rack, head angled down, and eyes fixated on a small, lavender, gold painted, 12 sided-

Oh.

"Hey Tsukki," Tadashi almost whispered. 

Giving no verbal response, Kei closed the door behind him as he stepped inside and knelt down in front of his friend to be at the same height. He combed his hand through his friend's green hair, hoping it could calm him down by at least a little. He figured it was enough to let him know that he was right there if he needed to be comforted. But he didn't want to get all up in his space just yet.

The boy looked up with watery eyes and a red nose, as if he had been holding back the tears since a while ago to avoid being a burden to anyone. But the comforting gesture made him feel free enough to let his emotions out without anyone around him giving misplaced judgement.

"Damn it, Tsukki. I said I wasn't going to cry."

Kei pushed the pile of torn shirts that were converted to rags away from his best friend's side so he could sit there and rub soothing circles on to his back. Upon seeing the lost and now found dice still in his friend's shaking grasp, Kei offered his hand out to Tadashi to take the source of his pain away from him.

After quickly turning over, almost throwing the dice to the taller boy, Tadashi resorted to hugging his knees and burying his face in his arms. 

Continuing to rub circles into his friend's back, Kei just listened to the sobs of the boy beside him as he silently cursed himself for not finding it first. 

"It's so unfair," Tadashi started, voice barely heard from his head still hidden in sorrow, "It's just a stupid dice. Why can't I just- This-"

He paused, trying to find the words to describe what he was feeling until suddenly jerking his head up, reaching into his pocket, and taking out his coin. Without warning, he then threw it at the closed door, forcing his energy into a frustrated yell, making sure to put all his rage into it, the sound of the metal hitting the wood showing just how hard that was. 

"This is useless!" 

Kei was taken aback as Tadashi started standing up to retrieve the coin, deciding he wasn't finished yet. The crying boy picked the coin up quickly and motioned to throw it again, this time the hit resounding more since it was closer. But an exclamation from his friend made him spin around to find that his friend had stood up to follow him and had now been hit in the face by the rebounding coin.

"Ow, fuck!"

"I- I didn't- Oh God, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to- I'm so stupid. Fuck, I wasn't thinking! I'm so sorry-" 

Tadashi had continued rambling as he cried, the tears flowing freely down his blotched face. He ran a hand through his hair and let it pull on the roots to try and keep his train of thought on Planet Earth, his frantic eyes locked on his friend who was now rubbing his forehead. 

Then he remembered the senior and his sister who were still outside and he pressed his forearm to his mouth to stifle his crying, barely registering that he had now been biting through his sleeve and leaving teeth marks on his skin. He figured that he might be worrying them with his crying. No, screw them, he could be worrying Tsukki with his crying, and he was being an overall nuisance. 

_He was so fucking useless._

Seeing that his friend had launched into a full on panic attack, Kei immediately held him by the wrists, taking his hands away from himself, fearing that if he didn't, Tadashi would pull too hard and rip his hair out and bite hard enough into his arm to pierce through his skin. 

Truth be told, he had no idea what to say. No matter how many times he had had to comfort Tadashi, he could never find the right words to reassure his best friend, someone who he supposedly knew the most about.

He gently released his harsh grip from the wrists of the broken boy in front of him, shushing and pulling him close to his chest, wrapping his arms around his back, continuing the motions he had done before. He felt the smaller boy shaking in his arms and couldn't help but mentally curse himself as he thought about how much he had failed him.

"Shh, you're okay. It's gonna be okay. I've got you..."

He felt two arms wrap tightly around his lower back as if they didn't ever want to let go, perhaps they didn't.

Kei remembered something his mother would do, whenever his father would have scenes like this, to calm him down. He had never tried it, because it seemed stupid enough to be a scam, but he didn't have other options right now, so anything was better than nothing.

"Yamaguchi... can you tell me five things you can see?"

A beat of silence followed as Yamaguchi thought over what his friend had asked of him.

"What?"

"Just five things you can see, Yams."

"D-darkness?" Tadashi questioned, unsure of where exactly this was going.

"That works. What else?"

"Red and purple s-spots, I guess?"

Kei assumed by now that Tadashi had closed his eyes and was now naming what he could see from behind his eyelids. It wasn't what he asked for, but he figured it would have to do. But Tadashi continued,

"I-I can see your s-shoes... my shoes, there's a crack in the f-floor..."

"Alright, you're doing great. Can you tell me 4 things you can touch?"

He felt the grip around his waist tighten and he worried that he made the situation worse. His thoughts were disproved as soon as he heard the wavering in Tadashi's voice decrease significantly when he said,

"Y-you. I can feel you, a-and the soles of my shoes... my shirt... your shirt."

"Perfect. I'm so proud of you, now can you tell me three things you can hear?"

Kei brought a hand up to the nape of the shorter boy's neck, nestling him closer as if he could take the negative energy way if he only held him tight enough.

"I can hear... your heartbeat... the fan, my ugly sobbing-"

"Try again, Yamaguchi-"

"The fan and my sobbing," Tadashi corrected himself.

"Great, two things you can smell?"

"Sweat... and dust."

As if on cue, Tadashi coughed a pitiful cough from exposure to dust in the room. By now, he had already calmed down, his brain more than grounded. Kei asked the last question on the list,

"Can you give me just one thing you can taste?"

"...bitter."

They stood in silence as they relished the moment, neither one planning to pull away just yet, even after they had both already calmed down and finished the five questions. Or at least they wouldn't have pulled away if Saeko hadn't called out to ask if they were alright.

"Guys? Is everything okay there?"

"Dont worry about the dice Sae, we found it. We're just returning stuff to their places right now!"

A relieved sigh was heard from the other side of the door as the Tanakas relaxed at the mention of the dice being found.

"Alright, we'll be waiting in the car. Don't take too long, okay? It's almost 11:30."

Tadashi started putting things back into boxes when Kei stopped him immediately and told him to go and wash up,

"Yamaguchi... why don't you go and clean yourself up, I can finish up over here."

And honestly, the emotional episode he just had left Tadashi with no strength to argue with what his friend suggested so he just nodded and walked out the door.

Kei didn't even bother checking if he put things into their correct boxes. All he knew was he could've done better at comforting his friend. After all these years, you'd think he'd know what to do by now, but this was just another promise he couldn't keep. How pathetic.


	4. Stop Hitting Yourself

Tadashi watched the trees and houses as they passed, surprised to find out how far they actually walked daily going to school and back home.

They had decided to take Saeko up on her offer to drive them home, it was almost midnight, and their houses were all the way near the bottom of the hill while their school was some place around the top.

After he had washed up when Kei told him, he thought he would just go to the car and wait for his friend there since he was probably already tired of having to calm Tadashi down. He rechecked if his things were still there and realized that his coin was left behind in all the chaos. He stepped outside and started walking back to the gym when Kei had told him there was no need to since he brought it with him.

Tadashi was grateful that he had done that, but it made him even more guilty, having his friend look after the thing that hit him a while ago. He immediately asked for it so he wouldn't trouble him anymore. But of course he didn't say that he was thinking that, or else Kei would have to comfort him yet again. It wasn't lying, it was just- hiding, and he was getting good at hiding.

No sound could be heard other than the car engine and the younger Tanaka's snoring. The radio was scanning through multiple stations, looking for one that was active at this time. It was automatic too, so it never made any static noise, just the occasional clicking whenever the radio changed stations again. That's why Tadashi was surprised to hear, as clear as day, the sound of Kei hitting his head on the car window. 

Looking through the rear window of the car, he realized that they had gone over a pothole that mostly affected the right side of the car, so he didn't quite feel it when they passed. He then looked at the boy sitting beside him in the backseat, just now realizing that the blonde had already fallen asleep. And truthfully, he was amazed at how he was able to sleep through getting his head hit that hard. 

Not wanting his friend to get hurt again, he rummaged through his bag to find anything that might have resembled a small pillow, finding an old clicky toy from long ago. He opened up a pocket and put the toy there and out of the way. In the end he pulled out an extra fluffy sweater.

_This should do._

Scooting closer to the boy, he folded it into a small rectangular form and used it as a barrier to keep Kei's head away from the glass.

Satisfied with the solution that utilized the makeshift pillow, he moved back to where he was originally and leaned back in his seat, determined to get some shut eye himself. He would've fallen asleep immediately if they hadn't hit a road bump that caused the sweater to fall down to Kei's shoulder. Oh yeah, and he hit his head again.

Tadashi thought that it was stupid of him to believe that the sweater would stay in place anyway, and decided to let Kei rest the back of his head on the head rest of the car seat. But as soon as he did that, the slumbering boy's head lolled around, and eventually ended back up against the window with another thud.

"What's going on back there?" Saeko asked, moving the rear view mirror to see what was going on.

"It's nothing, Miss Saeko, I'm just trying to keep Tsukki from hitting his head on the glass," Tadashi replied.

"Oh okay," she said with a chuckle, "He's a real heavy sleeper, isn't he?"

"Oh. Well he's not usually in this deep a sleep but I guess the stress has been wearing him down a bit, y'know?"

"Of course, of course."

And the car went silent again as Saeko gave up on small talk, realizing that the first year wasn't going to share more. She only wanted to fill the silence, so she was happy when the radio found a station. The music started playing a few seconds of what Tadashi thought was a ukulele. Then the singer started and he had easily identified the song as "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" by Paul Anka.

Tadashi silently laughed as he contemplated whether it was a good idea or not to let Kei lay down on his shoulder instead, there he could watch over him more and make sure that the sweater didn't fall again. After weighing out the pros and cons, the pros exceeding by a landslide, he decided he would let the taller boy put his head on his shoulder.

He took the fallen sweater and folded it again before placing it on his shoulder and pulling the sleeping boy towards him. As the weight pressed on his shoulder, he felt himself relax. 

The song had been going through the first verse and was now approaching the second. Tadashi was about to hum along, being familiar with the tune and not the lyrics, but he paused when he heard the lyrics that followed.

🎶Put your lips next to mine, dear. Won't you kiss me once?🎶

"Baby..." he quietly sang along, only knowing that part of the song.

He felt his face warm up as he thought about being able to freely kiss the boy who was now laying his head on his shoulder, bonus points if he allowed him to call him baby. Or not, he thought. Baby seemed too cliche and cheesy. It just didn't roll off the tongue nicely, especially thinking about Kei. He definitely wasn't a baby. If there was going to be a baby, it would be himself, a big, bumbling, baby.

And anyway, why did it even matter? The chances of them ever being in a relationship were so slim, even a stick of lead would be jealous. He sighed as he repositioned his friend on his shoulder, the said friend already slipping off from the constant movement of the car.

"Don't you want to get some rest yourself?" 

Tadashi whipped his head to the front, hearing the driver's question which was obviously directed at him. He found her gaze through the rear view mirror and realized that she had seen him struggling with Kei, hence the question.

"No, I'm fine!" he answered, a little bit too high-pitched, to be honest. Clearing his throat, he began again, "Really, I'm just fine. I may be tired, but I can wait a few more minutes to reach home. It wouldn't be fair to you."

"Oh you don't have to worry about me, I can last almost three days awake without medical assistance," the driver shared, smirking.

"Medical assistance?"

"Never mind, that doesn't really matter. Anyway, you said you were tired? Well, if you're really not going to at least try to go to sleep, why don't you tell me why you're tired then, hm?"

Tadashi thought back to the first day of practice and what exactly happened then. He remembered the new first years and their faces when they first stepped on to the court for their 5 vs. 5. He remembered the same look of excitement and adoration he had when he first started out, watching as Tanaka had served a ball and Daichi had rushed to receive it. He always wanted to be like them, but he was always sidelined.

He could tell from the practice match they had that the two first years would get sidelined a lot as well, especially the middle blocker that had been paired with him. Nakashima, his name was. But he asked everyone to call him Kentaro. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't particularly good either. Tadashi knew that if he worked hard enough, he would be able to reach the level of even the third years, and being a middle blocker himself, he wanted to be the one that taught him that.

So he told Saeko all about the first year and how he wanted to teach him the value of success through hard work.

"That sounds great, Yams. They're very lucky to have someone like you to teach them."

Tadashi wonders if that's true. It was his first year playing as a potential regular himself, so he didn't know that much about playing for official games, other than for the serve when he acts as a pinch server. Because of that, he didn't know what there was to teach them about strategy. Yeah, he was excited, but was he really the best person for the job?

Of course he was, he could be, he had been at the bottom before. He knew what it was like to start out insignificant and grow into something more than useful for the team. He was worth it. Even if he didn't feel like it sometimes, he was definitely the best person for the job.

"Yeah, I think so too. I think I can really teach them my techniques too, especially the middle blocker."

They were interrupted when Tanaka suddenly snored loudly in the middle of their conversation. Saeko laughed at her brother's silliness, Tadashi following after a few cautious giggles because he wasn't so sure it was okay to laugh at his senior. 

"Man, they really do tire you out there at your practices, huh?" Saeko said as more of a statement than a question.

"Oh yeah, these guys have it the worst."

"Worst? In what way?"

"Well..."

Tadashi thought back to when Coach Chief had sat in on one of their practices in his first year. He was a tall, muscular man in his late forties, with a mustache that rivaled the Pringles mascot, and hair always hidden under a cap. Knowing a lot about volleyball, he ran his mouth off at everything that seemed off, nitpicking every mistake. It was driving everyone mad. Even Coach Ukai had to stop himself from shooing him out. Daichi had told them to just bear it since it was only for that day that he was going to be observing them, so they did.

They were fine until Coach Chief ordered them to stop the drills they were having, instructing everyone to line up by their jersey numbers. Everyone was surprised when he started stomping off to the side of the line where the numbers were bigger. He was targeting the first years. No, he was targeting two specific first years.

"You two!" he yelled, "Just what are you trying to achieve on the court?"

Kei and Tadashi both looked at each other, clearly confused at what the question meant. They immediately looked back to the infuriated coach in front of them when he screamed,

"Hey! I'm still talking to you, answer my question! What are you even trying to do? Stand around until the ball touches the floor of your court and you lose a point?!"

"No, Coach," Tadashi said, after waiting for Kei to say something. The 11th team member just stared ahead with a neutral expression, clearly annoyed but otherwise unaffected by the rampaging coach in front of him.

"Then what exactly happened back there?" the coach questioned again.

"I don't know, Coach," Tadashi replied, Kei still keeping silent.

The chief had noticed the taller boy's refusal to respond and took it as an act of defiance. He got all up in his face and berated him, saying,

"And you, huh? You think you're Mr. Tough Guy being all careless and stuff. Well guess what, you ain't shit."

As he reprimanded the freshman, his spit sprayed everywhere and Kei had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from smiling at the one angry man. He immediately zoned out as soon as the man turned around for a second to say something to Mr. Takeda. The chief said,

"So I guess you just let anyone in here now, huh? I almost put my foot down with you hiring some convenience store runner as a coach but these are the lousiest first years I've ever seen. Your third years are a mess as well. Thank God we won't be seeing them next year."

He turned back and pointed to Hinata and continued,

"Except for this one, though, this one can be the best fucking player anyone has ever seen. Great contrast to everything I can see around here. This d20's the best thing you guys have got. Him and the d12. What was he, a second year? Yeah those two."

Hinata and Tanaka both winced a little at that, knowing that it was coming but still not fully ready to hear that the only reason most people saw them as valuable was because of their dice when they were so much more than that.

"And you, Mr. Tough Guy, you're a d17, aren't you?"

Kei's attention was brought back as his dice was mentioned. He hadn't told anyone in the team about his dice yet. Even Tadashi hadn't known the exact number of sides he had. All he knew was that it was a big number, but he never expected it to be that close to 20.

All heads turned his way as the news was revealed. He had a higher number than Tanaka, and that was already pretty high. Kei cut off the chief's next sentence as soon as it started. He asked the coach,

"How do you know that?"

"Of course I know it, I can go through your student records."

"But I was specifically told that that information would be kept confidential," Kei declared pointedly.

"What are you trying to hide, boy? This is something you should be showcasing to the world!"

"Did you read through all our files without permission??" Kei had raised his voice now. He could see in the corner of his eye that Coach Ukai had stood up and was walking over to stop the conversation from going in the worst direction, but the chief kept talking,

"You have one of the highest dice numbers in Miyagi and you're hiding it because, what? You try'na play the humble, innocent role?"

"What you did was against the school's rules!"

"Don't try to talk to me about school rules, boy."

The coach turned to Tadashi who kept quiet this whole time. The 12th team member was still taking in the fact that the boy he liked was so far out of his league.

The coach continued talking, oblivious to the fact that he was now the most disliked lerson in the room, "I can understand why this one sucked out on the court, since he's just a d2. You should know better-"

"He's not just a d2, chief," Kei shot back,

"Yamaguchi is a great player. He has improved so much from what he started as, considering no one taught him what he knows now. He succeeded in becoming one of the most important members we have, and he never, ever, degrades others. You're right, I should know better, better than to believe a single word that comes out of your belligerent mouth, you big headed, pompous, halfwit."

Coach Chief had tried to interject but Kageyama had already started talking,

"And the third years aren't a mess, they're what brought us together in the first place. Hinata and I wouldn't even be friends if Daichi hadn't had the initiative to pair us up for our tryouts. Thanks to them, our team is stronger than ever, and we're on our way to Nationals!"

"Well-"

"No disrespect, Coach, but Coach Ukai is not just a convenience store runner. He has our backs before, during, and after every game."

Heads turned to Daichi as they didn't expect him to talk back to authority like that. He continued,

"He makes sure we are happy and healthy, and never belittles us because of something we're born with. He may not be the best coach in the world but he's the best coach in our hearts."

Coach Chief had already started backing away, clearly feeling disrespected and disgusted at the attitude of the volleyball team,

"Well you all are the most disrespectful team I've had to deal with yet. We'll see who's so confident when I pull your club from the school-"

"And we'll see who's more confident when you lose the team that's gotten you the closest to Nationals."

Mr. Takeda had spoken up, now walking closer to the chief. With a guiding hand he gestured towards the open door and politely asked him to leave the gym. The man left without another word, getting tangled in the net at the door and grumbling to himself.

They all went out for dinner that night, dipping into the school's budget just to spite the chief. It was a good night, but Tadashi especially remembered how the chief put the most pressure on the three highest dice holders, Hinata, Kei, and Tanaka.

"It's just that all of us have to keep up Karasuno's reputation, but the three of them, Tsukki, Tanaka, and Hinata, carry the most pressure since they have the highest number of sides on their dice," Tadashi said, coming back to the present, and answering Saeko's question. 

"But all of you are great, no matter how high or low your dice number is."

"But other schools don't even accept students who have dice numbers below 10. Can you imagine being the only d17 in the midst of d6s playing against d10s and above?"

"Yeah, that does sound stressful."

Tadashi noticed the same song had still been playing this whole time. 

"Is that song on a loop or something?" he asked, jokingly.

"Oh yeah, I didn't even notice it was still playing. Must be an extended version."

With that Tadashi's attention was directed back to the boy on his shoulder as the lyrics reminded him of his... friend.

"I'm so sorry, by the way, for making you stay out this late. Your parents must be so worried," Saeko apologized, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"It's alright, I told my mom I would be home late. She's probably expecting me to stay the night at the Tsukishima's."

"Oh. You stay over often?"

"Well, I used to. The last time I've even stepped foot there was last Christmas when I had to return Tsukki's skates because he left them at my place. And even then, I only stayed at the genkan."

"Oh okay."

The topic died there, Tadashi thinking he didn't want to go back into flashback land. The conversation still went on though, as Saeko brought up the topic they had dropped a while ago.

"You know I've learned something throughout my time as an adult, even if it's only been a short while."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's that no matter how wild an earthquake gets and how strong the winds blow, a building doesn't topple over as long as it has a strong foundation."

Tadashi paused for a while before he asked Saeko a question, even though he thought he already partially knew the answer,

"Are you trying to say that as long as they have faith in themselves, they can stand strong against all others?"

"Close. I'm trying to say that as long as they have someone to support them and cheer them on, they can stand strong against all others, together."

He thought it was a good idea to ask for what she meant instead of just assuming he was right since what she said made more sense in this situation.

No matter what, Tadashi would always have Kei's back, Saeko was always there for her brother, and even Hinata had Kageyama to look out for him. No one really was alone, even if it felt like it. There were six players on the court, and even more supporting them from outside the team, like friends and family.

The regular players weren't decided yet, but it was obvious that Kei would be chosen to be a middle blocker again this year. Tadashi could accept if things didn't work out and he was put on the figurative bench again, he could always support the team from the sidelines. 

But was Tadashi really willing to just be someone who always cheers someone on?

Now wasn't the time to think about that though. No matter what happened, if he got on the regular team or not. 

He would always have Tsukki, and Tsukki would always have him.

As Kei rested his head on Tadashi's shoulder, the green haired boy rested his head on the blonde's. Tadashi took note of the scent of amber and vanilla that he picked up as he caught a whiff of his friends hair. 

"So sweet," he thought about the scent, "Completely opposite to the boy who carried it."

As he closed his eyes to finally try and fall asleep, he thought to emphasize the most important thing that Saeko had said before,

"Yeah, together."


	5. Waffles Are For Breakfast

Kei stood in the genkan of the Yamaguchi household, not knowing how he got there or why he was there in the first place. He noticed the paintings on the wall first. They were familiar, he'd seen them many times before. But this time, they were cleaner, newer. Was he back in the past?

There was a specific painting that he noticed was oddly out of place. It was small and could have easily been missed, except for the fact that it was calling out to Kei like an SOS beacon. The painting was beautiful, but messy in a way. He didn't know what exactly it was supposed to be, since it seemed to hold many small details of the larger picture, but also seem so generalized. He could make out a shiny, bronze surface that had indentations on it, but none too clear to decipher. Some words popped up here and there, too. Cursive letters written in a messy handwriting, spelling out the word 'volleyball', he guessed, since it made the most sense, even if all he saw was a 'v' and a 'y' here and there, even a misplaced 'i', with a little heart over it. He found the painting really comforting, or as comforting as one could get in an unknown place. 

Looking away from the painting, he decided to find anything else in the room that he could make sense of. But his hopes for an explanation were dashed and his confusion only grew as a teenage girl he had only seen a few times before came barreling down the stairs, her green hair in a messy bun, glasses that were too big for her face slipping off of her small nose. This was Tadashi's older sister, the one that had left to go to America for college. She still came by whenever she could, but now her job only allowed her to visit Miyagi for five days every other year.

She had an 18-sided dice, a stark contrast from both her parents who owned d6s, and an even more obvious contrast to her little brother who had a coin. Job offers and opportunities came easily for her, hence her tight schedule, so Kei's memory of her was vague. All he knew was that she looked almost like his friend with her dark green hair and eyes.

"I'm heading out," she had declared, "don't wait up for me."

She left, giving her mother a peck on the cheek and closing the door behind her with almost no noise.

Kei debated whether he should step into this imaginary house with his imaginary shoes or not since it would still be slightly disrespectful. Deciding that he probably couldn't even take his shoes off in this realm anyway, he put a foot on the step in front of him to enter.

But the door behind him slammed open and he spun around in surprise to find a mini Tadashi and a not so mini.... Dear God, was he really that tall when he was a kid?

The green haired boy started chattering excitedly, determined to let his mother know what he had been up to with his friend. Almost tripping over the step, he quickly removed his shoes and jumped up and down while waiting for his taller friend to follow. 

"Come on, Tsukkiiii!" the freckled boy said, dragging out the last word as he pestered his guest. 

"I'm going, I'm going," the younger Kei drawled, almost falling over as he had to balance on one foot while the more enthusiastic one was tugging hard on his arm, leaving pink marks on the pale boy's skin.

Both boys phased through the older version of Kei as they passed him. The phantom boy clutched at his chest where he felt the boys pass through him. He felt dizzy and sick to his stomach. There was just something about seeing a younger version of yourself and then having that same version walk right through you without even knowing you were there.

He followed the little boys to the kitchen where Tadashi's mother had been cooking waffles. Releasing his grip on his friend's arm, Tadashi reached into his pocket and pulled out a funny looking toy.

His mother looked at him, proudly smiling despite not knowing what was being shown to her.

"What's that, honey?" she asked, smile not wavering for a second.

"Tsukki made this for me!" her son answered.

Kei could feel the edges of his present reality blurring and fading away for a second and suddenly he was in the middle of the road in front of the park that he and Tadashi used to hang out in. Used to, because they didn't ever do that anymore. He saw the same little versions of him and his friend walking down the road, the shorter one holding a paper bill in his hand, letting it flutter around as his arms swung while he walked.

Kei remembered that day. It was Tadashi's birthday, and his mother had given him money to buy himself a gift. He had convinced her that he was a big boy and he was smart enough to know what he wanted and buy his own presents.

Kei had walked with him, telling him that he should be saving it instead of spending it since it wasn't much money to be able to buy a toy of good quality. Of course, the birthday boy hadn't listened. Spotting a street vendor with his collection of cheap looking toys, Tadashi immediately approached the sketchy looking guy, dragging Kei along with him.

Kei had prevented him from getting too close to the vendor, thinking the man might do something, but then realized that he wouldn't try anything in broad daylight with other people walking around, so he just stood by and watched the exchange. 

In the end, they had bought a clicky toy that would make a clicking noise everytime it was swung back and forth, basically a rattle, but more annoying.. Kei still remembers how overpriced it was, definitely not worth a small rattle-like plaything. But Tadashi was happy with it, so he figured he could hold his tongue for now.

They were on their way back home when Tadashi had dropped it on the sidewalk. As to how someone could drop something that specifically had a grip on it, Kei will never know. It ended up broken beyond repair, and it was supposed to be of 'premium quality' going off of what the vendor told them. Kei was there to console his friend who was more concerned about the broken toy than the fact that he was scammed into buying an expensive toy with weak quality. 

He offered to buy some materials to make their own toy with the remaining birthday money Tadashi had and a few yen out of Kei's own pocket. It only took a few minutes of their time to finish making a replica of the clicky toy, and it was actually cheaper and sturdier. Although it still looked like a child's art project, Kei was pretty proud of it.

"We should write a name on it!" Tadashi had suggested, waving the toy around and letting it make the obnoxious clicking noise it was meant to make.

"Why would we need to n-"

"I'm thinking we write 'SALTYSHIMA' on it in big, bold letters-"

"No."

"But-"

"I said no."

"Hmph!"

Tadashi plopped down on the sidewalk with a frown deeper than the Mariana Trench, that was until he caught sight of the bright orange toy he held tightly in his fist. He smiled fondly at the sight of it, touched that his friend would do something like that for him.

Smiling up at the taller boy, he thanked him for his patience in dealing with his clumsiness,

"Thank you, Tsukki!"

"Of course, it's really no problem. That should count as my birthday gift though, okay?. I can't get you anything else other than that."

Kei watched his younger self sit down beside Tadashi upon noticing that the green haired boy had no plans to stand back up and go back home any time soon. Tadashi kept talking,

"Don't be silly, Tsukki. Your prescence is always a present!"

The birthday boy wrapped his arms around his friend, as if that would solidify the fact that his prescence was indeed a present.

Back at home, Tadashi proudly waved the toy in front of his mother, telling him how they named it SALTYSHIMA, despite Kei's constant denial. After his mother had lectured him on how it was mean to bully others, Tadashi had gone upstairs to find the gift that his mother had given him, wanting to show it off to Kei. 

Mrs. Yamaguchi transferred a freshly cooked waffle onto a plate to serve to Kei, and another one for when the birthday boy had come back down. She turned off the stove and hung her apron on the rack by the sink, wiping her hands on it as she left the kitchen.

She sat across from where Kei was sitting on the small four seater table, spirit Kei standing behind his younger counterpart. She slowly pushed the plate of waffles his way and he silently wondered why anyone would have waffles for anything other than breakfast. But he was hungry, and he could never say no to free food, so he picked up his knife and fork and started to dig in.

Mrs. Yamaguchi talked as Kei ate, sharing things about Tadashi's seemingly eventful and colorful childhood. But Kei had noticed that she talked like she was trying to reach the word limit of a 500 word essay while describing . She was reaching for memories that were brely there, for the childhood memories her son never had. She seemed to notice that Kei didn't buy into any of it, her words now losing conviction. She sighed as she let her face fall, her own fork and knife dropping like the temperature on a winter's night onto the semi-fancy tablecloth that she had brought specifically for this celebration. 

"If you couldn't tell, Tadashi hasn't been able to celebrate his birthday with too many people yet," she said, "You're one of the first friends of his who has ever even been inside the house for anything other than a school activity."

"One of the first?" Kei asked, wondering why she still twisted her words instead of saying what he ready knew. He wasn't one of the first friends, he was the only person who had ever considered Tadashi as a friend. 

She noticed his suspicion, and a smile slowly formed on her face. She explained herself, "You probably thought I meant that he's had a few other people over right? Well, I'm not a liar, I just like to be a little bit optimistic, and what's so wrong with that?"

She stood, grabbing two pitchers from the refrigerator and setting them down in front of Kei in case he wanted to choose between water or juice. She continued, "Besides, I know he'll find a lot more friends. He's such a sweet boy, don't you agree?"

Both the younger and older versions nodded their heads in agreement, the older one with a little bit more enthusiasm than the younger. 

"I just... sometimes can't help but wonder if I'd done something wrong, you know?" her voice trembled as she spoke, her hand rushing to cover her mouth as she tried to steady her voice, "Could I have done something more so that he could have a normal life?" 

Looking back at this moment, the older Kei thought it was completely immature of Mrs. Yamaguchi to unload her problems on her son's friend but at that moment he really didn't mind. Man, the Yamaguchi family was really starting to grow on him, because he gently placed his utensils on the table and adjusted his glasses as he thought of what to say.

"It isn't your fault, Mrs. Yamaguchi-" he started, and was immediately cut off by the woman in despair in front of him.

"But that's always the case isn't it? Wasn't my fault, wasn't anyone's fault. But he's still suffering!" 

Kei waited a moment for the adult to calm down, wondering how Tadashi would react if he came down to see his mother half crying on his birthday. He continued,

"I didn't say wasn't. I said isn't, Mrs. Yamaguchi. It isn't your fault. You are doing all that you can to make him happy. And he is happy, isn't he? Your son is happy and healthy today, on his 8 birthday, because you never gave up on him. He is the luckiest little boy in the world to have a mother like you..." 

He stopped, realizing that he had been somewhat projecting. Was that still his past self talking? Or was he now speaking from experience. This moment wasn't about him, he had to calm down,

"What I'm trying to say is, does he not have a loving family to come home to every day? Can he not have three meals daily without needing to worry if tomorrow he'll still be able to have more? You are doing enough. You are enough."

She looked down at the table as she listened, bewildered at the fact that an eight year old was giving her advice, but gladly accepting it anyway. With a heavy chuckle and a hand to wipe tears from her eyes, she thanked him for the words of wisdom and offered to take his now empty plate away.

The older Kei noticed it now, the plate was a nice and shiny bronze color. There were words engraved into the rim, but he couldn't read them. Then Tadashi had whispered from behind him, something he couldn't quite understand. He turned around to see the expression on the young boy's face, hoping it would give him some context as to what he might have said. But upon turning around, he found that there was no one there.

He flicked his head back to the plate, his confusion only growing by the second. The plate that was just a moment ago bronze and shiny had now turned into a sandy paper plate.

"Please don't call me Mrs. Yamaguchi, Kei. It feels like I should be calling you Mr. Tsukishima after that advice you just gave."

"Kei is just fine."

"Well alright, but you can call me Chiyo. That's my first name."

She was about to head into the kitchen to start cleaning Kei's utensils until she heard a disturbance from the second floor. Tadashi must have found the gift. She turned around, hoping to ask a favor from the boy at the table, thinking her son might descend any time soon.

"Kei," she started, "Should things go south, do you promise that you'll take care of him?"

Kei then didn't need to think about his answer, thinking it would be easy to have someone to take care of, a solid yes leaving his lips as soon as the question was asked. But the Kei now had to think twice. He thought about what had happened at the supplies room, how he hadn't been able to do much for Tadashi, the very boy he promised to take care of. He ended up not giving an answer.

The conversation continued, the question not directed at him anyway. Tadashi ran down the stairs, hopping over every third step as he descended. A rattle, the gift from his one and only friend, protruded from a small sling bag that was hanging from his shoulder. He ran up to Kei, holding a big yellow and blue ball that required him to hold it with both hands, hence the sling. 

"Mom got me a volleyball! It looks like the one your brother has, right??" 

"Yup," Kei said, fighting back a smile at the cute ball of sunlight that was Tadashi Yamaguchi, " It looks just like it."

It was a sweet moment. Although it seemed inconsequential to Kei when he was younger, it's sentimental value had increased a whole lot by now. He missed when it used to be so simple. If he trips and hurts himself, then all he had to do was clean the wound and cover it with a band aid and a smiley face sticker. If he cries, sing a song to make him laugh. But now the wounds cut deeper than just flesh, and the cries muffled the merry tunes they would sing. He just wasn't enough anymore. 

So he relished this moment, even if he wasn't really part of it. He sang the birthday song with the family and watched as the boys tossed the ball back and forth, careful not to break anything since they were playing inside. 

But then he noticed the air had turned bleak and muffled, same with the voices and emotions in the memory. They turned dull, not the way he remembered it at all. He moved to check closer for any change in the way the children played, but he was thrown back by a great unseen force into a chair, and he watched as all the events of that day started occurring again, and backwards, the sounds accompanying it like a record being spun the opposite way. 

He looked down at his hands, they were small now. Clothes? The type a grade schooler would wear. Shoes? Sizes made smaller by at least four sizes. He was... a child.

Looking up after examining himself, he found Chiyo sitting in the same place she was when she was talking to him, well the other him, a while ago, her hand hovering over the tablecloth as if getting ready to present a masterpiece Her mouth was now irregularly wide in a frown, wider than humanly possible. Her pupils grew to the size of coins- no, they were coins, bronze coins. It all played out like a scene from a horror movie, but Kei couldn't look away.

"You lied," the amalgamated version of Tadashi's mother spat out, "You said you would take care of him."

Kei could only watch in horror as she lifted the cloth to reveal his friend's rotting corpse, as his mouth was sealed shut and his body was glued to the seat. Tadashi's eyes were frozen open in fear, looking at Kei as if to say it was his fault.

"You failed him!" the mother wailed.

She took her son's hand and opened his gently closed fist to retrieve a bright orange clicky toy that was caked in blood and dirt. 

Click.

The sound of the toy rang through the house as the mother unintentionally shook it as she trembled in anger and sadness. 

Click.

This is a nightmare.

Click.

Just a dream.

Click. 

Wake up, you pathetic excuse of a human being.

Click.

Kei woke up in the car, and being disoriented with his surroundings, he almost screamed. But it took him a second to remember where he was and why he was there. He had fallen asleep in Saeko Tanaka's car as she and her brother were giving him a ride home. He was sitting in the backseat with his best friend Tadashi.

He glanced beside him to find that the one person he thought would be there was just gone. His blood ran cold and his hairs stood on end. He was about to lose it until-

"Hey, you, you're finally awake. Yamaguchi just got out of the car. If you're wondering why that thing is tied around your head, that was his bright idea to keep you from hitting your head against the window," Saeko clarified. 

Only then did Kei notice that there was a piece of cloth tied around his forehead and the headrest of his seat. He quickly removed it, thinking about how ridiculous he must have looked. Upon closer examination, he realized that the piece of cloth was actually Tadashi's sweater. The sleeves were still intertwined from the act, so he unraveled them and smoothed the sweater out. 

_Yet another thing Yamaguchi had to sacrifice for him._

He held the sweater in his lap, feeling the soft material crease under his fingers. It calmed him down a bit, but nothing could make him instantaneously forget the insane nightmare he just had. It had been a long time since he'd even seen Chiyo or the Yamaguchi household. That birthday was years ago, he shouldn't have even remembered that they had waffles that time. 

He leaned his head against the window, drawing it back as soon as he felt pain there. It was probably bruised. Tadashi wouldn't have gone to extreme measures to tie his head to the seat if he hadn't already been hitting his head multiple times during the ride. He had to thank him as soon as he got home. 

He folded the sweater and placed it in his bag, mentally noting to give it back to his friend tomorrow when they met up with each other to walk to school together, going extra early at 5:00 to make sure Tadashi didn't have to wait for him. He would make it all up to him tomorrow. 

The next day he stayed in bed until half past eleven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so after posting four chapters simultaneously last week, I just realized that I'm gonna run out of banked chapters before I can finish writing new ones so I'm only going to be updating once every week on Sundays. By the way if you guys see any grammatical or spelling errors anywhere, please tell me. I'll change them. Aaaaaand if you think the story starts getting sucky, please be honest because this is the first story I've ever posted and I need critique. Anyway, that's all, and I'll post again next Sunday. Byeeee


	6. Plastic Dinosaur Figurine

"When Jenna is 3 years old, her brother, Jimmy, is three times her age. How old will Jimmy be when Jenna is 5 years old?"

"I got it! He would be 15, right?"

"What, how?"

"Because you just multiply 5, which is Jenna's age, times 3 to get Jimmy's age."

"Dumbass, you're supposed to get Jimmy's age when Jenna is 3 years old, then multiply it by 3. He's 27!"

"Hey, I thought this was my quiz! You said you'd just read the questions."

"But you're getting them wrong!"

Kageyama and Hinata walked beside each other, ahead of Tadashi, arguing about an IQ Test they had found among other mobile quizzes of questionable credibility. 

Tadashi paid no attention to their squabbling, a more important matter at hand. Kei hadn't come to school that morning. Tadashi had waited for him near the weird lamppost where they met up at before walking together, but it was already 15 minutes before the bell and Kei was nowhere to be found.

After leaving numerous missed calls and messages in between classes, Tadashi received a message from Akiteru Tsukishima, Kei's older brother, saying that Kei had a cold and was going to have to stay in bed. That's when the second years decided to visit him during lunch break with some chicken soup and a priced down blueberry cheesecake from the cafeteria that they all contributed pocket money for. 

He held the tupperware that encased the cake in his hands, thinking it would end up ruined if he placed it inside his bag.

Tadashi also took note of Kei's assignments for that day, stuff he missed that might be useful later on. He even made an effort to try and write his notes properly so that Kei could take a look at them if he needed to. He probably wouldn't, but a probability is still a possibility.

As the boys continued bickering between themselves, Tadashi took note that they almost sounded like an old couple, arguing over the smallest things. It couldn't be healthy, but it didn't seem to affect them, they always ended up hanging out with each other anyway. 

He turned his attention back to the pair in front of him. They were now engaging in a hands-only wrestling match with each other, fingers intertwined. It had gone on for a considerable amount of time, until Kageyama pulled back, faking his defeat only to push back at Hinata with more strength than before.

Hinata, not expecting the sudden force, stumbled back, falling and stepping off from the sidewalk. The loud sound of a horn blared as Hinata was about to hit an oncoming motorcycle. 

Kageyama instinctively tightened his grasp on Hinata's hands, pulling him away from the road and towards him. Hinata stared wide eyed at the piece of concrete he could see in front of him from his frozen state. Kageyama had let go of one hand, placing it on Hinata's head to hold him closer.

"Are you okay?" he asked after a while, the regret clear on his face.

It took Hinata a while to respond, "Y-yeah, I'm fine."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, too."

After the initial shock of the situation, Tadashi noticed that he dropped the plastic container that held the cheesecake. He was thankful that he had at least asked for a tupperware to put the food in instead of a simple plastic bag. He lifted the cover to see that the cake had now been smeared all over the container, retaining only a little of its original shape. 

"Brilliant," he said, showing his friends what happened to the food they each contributed to get. Hinata took a closer look at it, dragging Kageyama along as he refused to let go of the black-haired boy's hand.

"Oh it's not that bad!" Hinata tried, hoping that Tadashi wouldn't feel so bad about the poor cake.

"I bet it still tastes good, too-" Kageyama supported.

"Its fine guys, I'm just glad you're okay, Shouyou."

Tadashi resealed the container and placed it inside his bag, the issue of it getting squished not so threatening anymore. He eyed the broth that was still in its container and sighed. At least there was still that to give to Kei.

Kageyama offered to carry his bag for him until they got there as an apology, but he just declined, wanting to be able to tell Kei that he had successfully kept the soup safe all the way to his house just for him. It must have been some romantic knight in shining armor bullshit that he had in his mind. 

He directed their attention back to the quiz from a while ago, giving his opinion on the unanswered item,

"I actually think Jimmy will be 11 when Jenna turns 5."

"What?!" Hinata immediately took Kageyama's phone from his pocket, unlocking it easily. Kageyama looked over Hinata's head, hands on his friend's shoulders as they checked the given choices under the question, and they saw 11 as the second option.

"Click it, click it," Kageyama demanded, already reaching out for his phone, eager to see if it was the correct answer. But as soon as they pressed the option to answer, the screen only showed the next question.

"There's more??"

And so they launched into another wrestling match to be in possession of the cellphone, this time Kageyama making sure to be the one nearer to the road, lest the dangerous event happen again.

A few minutes later and they were at the Tsukishima's doorstep. Kageyama and Hinata scanned the house, it being their first time visiting the mansion. Tadashi stepped up, being closer to the residents than the two other second years behind him, and rang the doorbell. They all listened as a cheery tune played from inside the house to inform all that were inside that there was someone at the door.

A few noises were heard soon after, as if someone was running down the stairs. They heard the sound of multiple locks clicking as they were being unlocked and finally, the door opened and there stood a blonde haired boy with brown eyes. He was around the same height as Kei, maybe a little bit shorter. The boy was Akiteru Tsukishima, the oldest child in the Tsukishima household. 

"I'm so sorry. These locks sometimes... Hey Tadashi," the blonde greeted, scratching his head to give his hands something to do other than stay by his side awkwardly.

"Hey, Akiteru. We were just going to check on Tsukki. Is that fine?" Tadashi asked.

"Of course, of course," Akiteru replied.

As Tadashi placed his shoes on the rack, he noticed the multiple locks on the door that he heard earlier. Rows of padlocks and deadbolts decorated the door, connecting it to the doorframe. Although it seemed like it was meant to keep people out, Tadashi knew it was meant to keep people in. And he knew exactly who.

"Ah, he's upstairs in his room, resting," the older brother said, making his way towards the kitchen, "I had to give him something to help him sleep, by the way. He kept walking around, trying to be 'useful', he said. Anyway, he might be a little bit..." the boy put his finger to his temple and moved the finger in a circular motion, indicating that his little brother was probably a little bit loopy. He started working on a meal, trusting the group to be responsible enough to not break anything.

Tadashi nodded and locked one lock on the door behind him that looked like the master lock. With the soup and ruined cake in hand, he started heading upstairs, Hinata and Kageyama staying for a while to admire the big house.

When Tadashi reached the door of Kei's room, he thought about knocking to make his prescence known, but as soon as he saw the door half open and his friend asleep on the bed, he decided not to. Sure enough, Kei was there, his eyes closed and his hands resting on his stomach over a blanket with cartoon dinosaurs and plant life. It covered his bare chest, leaving only his shoulders, arms and face in Tadashi's view. 

The sound of two teenage boys running up the stairs startled Kei awake, and he sat up immediately, his eyes rapidly scanning the room for a threat before finally landing on the eyes of the unexpected visitor. 

"Gah- what are you doing here?!" he exclaimed, fumbling with the blanket to cover himself up when he realized that he was half naked in front of his friend, even if that had already happened many times before.

He should have knocked first, he thought. But as he took a step back, he found that the two had already entered the room as well. Everyone started screaming, Kei, at the intrusion, Kageyama and Hinata, at the sight of Kei's deathly pale body, and Tadashi at the sound of everyone screaming.

Yeah, he definitely should have knocked first.

\----------

Kei and Tadashi were lying on Kei's bed, huddled together under a layer of two blankets and a comforter for added warmth, especially since Kei was getting chills because of his cold. Tadashi had his back on the head board of the bed's frame, his arm around Kei as the taller boy clung onto him to regain lost body heat.

Tadashi had decided to skip his afternoon classes to help Akiteru watch over Kei, especially since they needed to get some schoolwork done anyway. Kei had tried to convince him to at least join volleyball practice since it was one of the many things that brought him joy, but Tadashi only said that he wouldn't go without Kei.

Akiteru had left to meet up with some friends to give him their notes from that day, since he missed school to stay home and take care of Kei. Kageyama and Hinata went back to school for afternoon classes, so they were completely alone in the monster of a mansion. 

Both of their eyes were fixed on the screen as they watched Barbie: Princess Charm School, but Tadashi had his mind set on other things. The green haired boy was more focused on trying to keep his heartbeat steady, and the more he thought about not panicking, the more he panicked. He did this because he was acutely aware of the fact that Kei was dangerously close to him to the point where he could feel Kei's heartbeat. He was thinking that if he could feel Kei's heartbeat, then Kei could definitely feel his.

Meanwhile, Kei had long noticed his friend tense up behind him and his heart rate speed up dramatically. Under normal circumstances, he would have immediately got into a less awkward position for the guy, but Akiteru had given him some fucking drug to try and get him to go to sleep, and now he couldn't think straight. So he stayed there, mind zoning in and out, Tadashi being the only thing keeping him on planet Earth. He decided it wouldn't hurt to ask what was bothering his human blanket.

"What's wrong, Yamaguchi? Why are you so tense?" he asked, snuggling closer to the boy, still keeping his eyes on the movie.

"Well, I mean- you know, nothing's wrong, really..." 

Kei had expected him to lie, but he hoped it would break the silence that they were suffering in. Tadashi caught on, so he reacted to a dress transformation sequence in the movie, when the coronation was happening.

"You know, Tsukki, I bet you'd look absolutely gorgeous as a princess."

"Oh? So I don't look absolutely gorgeous now?"

"What?! No, I didn't mean-"

"I'm just kidding, Tadashi..."

At the mention of his first name, Tadashi seemed to finally relax. Kei decided he could continue what he was saying since the atmosphere was now pretty calm,

"...I bet you'd look absolutely gorgeous yourself."

Kei had looked up to the freckled boy as he talked, expecting him to still be focused on the movie. What he got in return, however, were two brown eyes looking back at him, the light from the film reflecting off of them. He quickly took in all of his friend's features then, like he was playing a memory game. He wanted to note down every detail, and he never wanted to forget.

He knew they had been this way with each other many times before, but due to recent events, they had been more hesitant. Because of that, it was an extreme act of bravery when Kei reached up to play with the overgrown nest of hair.

"Your hair's getting a little long," Kei said.

"Yeah, don't you like it?"

"It was just an observation-"

"So you're not going to answer the question?"

"Oh no, your hair's nice, blah, blah. Generic compliment, blah."

"Did you seriously just say generic compliment?"

"Yesss, I did."

"Man, Akiteru must have given you way more Lorazepam than you needed for you to get this whiny," Tadashi retorted, now trying to pry the childishly acting boy's hands off of his locks.

"You're joking, right? He couldn't even give me enough to knock me out."

Kei finally gave up and let go of his friend's hair, falling back down on the bed, taking over more than half of the bed and spreading his arms and legs out like the star he believed himself to be.

"Well I was planning on growing it even longer so I can satisfyingly head bang. Like a rockstar, you know? I was even planning on getting an ear piercing mayb-" Tadashi continued.

"No! Really?!" Kei exclaimed, quickly getting up and on his knees to see Tadashi properly, trying to work out if he was joking or not. 

"What? What's so funny?" Tadashi instantly regretted sharing his plans as soon as Kei reacted.

"You just seem so..."

"So??"

"...vanilla." 

A moment of silence passed after Kei had not so confidently given his opinion until Tadashi said the only thing he could think of,

"What."

"Whaaat? I'm only telling it like I see it!"

"Ohoho, you think I'm vanilla??"

"Well, are you going to prove me wrong?"

"Keep playing like that, Kei, and I just might." 

Tadashi had sat up at this point as well, trying to level himself with the boy beside him, maybe even towering a little just to show that he wasn't going to be made fun of. But Kei remained unfazed despite the frustrated look on his friend's face and he challenged him once more.

"Ooooohhh, so we're using first names now, huh?"

"You just called me Tadashi a while ago!"

Kei reached over Tadashi to snatch the remote from the bedside table and pause the movie. He hopped from the bed and sped to the door, inviting Tadashi to chase him if he wanted the movie to continue. 

"Wow, really?" Tadashi looked unimpressed at the taller boy's stunt, "That's real mature, you know."

Kei almost fell backwards as he tripped over what he liked to call a plastic dinosaur figurine even though it was basically just a dinosaur toy. He was still loopy, so it wasn't safe for him to run. And Tadashi tried to tell him this.

"Hey, hey, you're gonna fall and hit your head, you know? Be careful-"

"You're still sounding pretty vanilla to me~"

"Tsukki! I'm not joking. You're going to actually hurt yourself! Get back here!"

Kei had dropped the remote long ago, but that's not what Tadashi was worried about. He jumped off the bed and started chasing after Kei, the blankets from a while ago dragging behind him as they still wrapped around his legs. Kei had started descending the steps quickly, jumping over some. Surprisingly, he made it to the bottom without breaking a limb. 

"Come on, Tsukki! Quit playing around-"

And with that, Tadashi tackled Kei to the floor as they engaged in a wrestling match. Tadashi was trying to get Kei to stop running away, and Kei was just trying to have some fun after having nothing to do for the whole day.

They weren't too careful, and sure enough, just like Tadashi had warned, Kei hit his head on the coffee table. It wasn't too hard, but it was still enough to make a resounding clunk. 

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Tsu-"  
As Tadashi fretted over his mistake in tackling his friend, Kei took it as an opportunity to push him back to land on a stray bean bag.

He clearly had more advantage, since gravity was his friend in this situation. But just to be sure, he straddled Tadashi's hips to weigh him down a bit. Sure, Tadashi was shorter, but he was a hell of a lot stronger when it came to pure strength, and he didn't want to take that risk, especially since if Tadashi won it meant the moment would be over. 

"God, your skull must be thicker than a High School Maths book. Are you sure I didn't split your head open or something?" Tadashi huffed, clearly struggling to speak as they continued grappling with each other for the right to speak their mind.

"And you are a complete killjoy, Tadashi Yamaguchi! Let me have some fun for once. I had to stay home for the whoooole day-"

"Hey, I'd rather be a killjoy than accidentally get you killed-"

"Dawww, that's so sweet- woah!"

Tadashi finally gathered up all his remaining strength to push up and away from the bean bag, once and for all pinning Kei to the ground by his wrists as they both fell on to the woolly carpet.

With both hands on either side of his head, and his legs rendered absolutely useless by the exasperated boy above him, Kei found himself unable to summon any ounce of strength to push back. This took an interesting turn, he thought, submitting himself to a fate of reprimands from his temporary caretaker.

"You really need to find your chill, you know?!" Tadashi yelled, fingers digging into the mesh hidden underneath the wool, his knees stuck tight to the floor as well.

In a split second, the effects of both Tadashi's adrenaline and Kei's medicine wore off as they came to realize what they were doing and how they ended up that way. Tadashi's eyes widened in shock as he nervously sputtered out an apology,

"I-I mean like, c-calm down a bit o-or something..."

At this point, you'd think he would get back to standing, his point already delivered, but they were both stuck, wanting the moment to never end. He let his eyes wander to anywhere else but the eyes of the boy under him, afraid that if he did, he wouldn't be able to hold back from closing the distance between their lips.

That plan went down the drain as his eyes landed on his lips instead. As they did, he noticed, in his peripheral vision, that Kei had swallowed a whole lump in his throat, his breath hitching as well in the action. 

Oh.

So this was making him uncomfortable then, huh? 

Okay then.

Kei continued to stare with wide eyes as Tadashi lips moved to form syllables that he barely understood in his state of panic,

"Your breath smells like cheesecake, Tsukki."

"I- w-what?"

Suddenly the face that was only inches away from his was now several feet away and making its way to the dining room for a glass of water. 

"I said your breath smells like the blueberry cheesecake we got for you."

He sat up, feeling the loss of the boy who had pinned him down earlier to save him from his own stupidity. 

He must be the most selfish person in the world to have let what had occured a while ago happen. Was he not trying to do the best that he could to not lead his friend on? If so, then why did he let that happen?

Yes, he knew that his friend liked him. He had known for years, from before they even started high school. But he couldn't do anything about it, even if he reciprocated those same feelings. God, he really was the most selfish person in the world to hide behind their friendship because he's too scared to make a move and watch it all crash and burn as Tadashi realizes that he's no good.

For God's sake, the guy missed a half day of school and volleyball practice just because he had to get sick. He couldn't even comfort Tadashi for shit, even though he tried. But there Tadashi was, crushing on him as if he wasn't the absolute worst thing in his life.

He was so pathetic.

"Tsukki! Do you want me to cook you something for a snack?"

He stood and walked to the dining room to meet his friend there.

"Sure, I'll help you prepare some Anmitsu bowls."

He was so pathetic, but goddammit, he wanted to be pathetic for just a little while longer.


	7. Chemistry Homework

The smell of sweat, spirit, and Salonpas filled the air, along with the sound of shoes squeaking on the polished floor. Members of the Karasuno High Volleyball Club were having free practice after their formal training with Coach Ukai. The man in question was already walking out the door, citing his farewells to anyone who wasn't already absorbed in their practicing. 

Noya was alone in a corner, setting to the wall and receiving every fifth bounce. Kinoshita was with Hinata and one of the first years, Hiro Tamura, working on techniques in controlling the ball. Tadashi was having a one on one consultation with their newest middle blocker, Kentaro Nakashima. 

Kei was the one that Ennoshita assigned to teach the first year, but he was as good at teaching as he was at communicating- which is not good at all. So there Tadashi stood, on the side of the net, opposite of where Tanaka was practicing cut shots, with Kageyama setting, for Kinoshita's group to receive, and for them to just watch.

The first year was getting restless at the sights and sounds of everyone being able to physically practice by themselves while he was stuck listening to techniques. He wanted to get going, but apparently he didn't even know the basics. 

The green haired second year was going on about techniques, but Kentaro didn't even bother to listen. Instead, he watched the ball fly over the net as Tanaka hit it, and imagined being able to block it completely and watch Tanaka's face when he realized he missed a chance to score. God, wouldn't that feel so great?

"...talking too fast? Do you get what I'm saying?"

Tadashi had been too caught up in what he was saying that he almost didn't notice his protege for the day zoning out. When he did notice, he thought it was because he hadn't been explaining well, so he asked the boy if he had anything to clarify, but all the boy said was

"Oh yeah, totally."

Then Tadashi realized that the boy was completely uninterested in anything he had to say. Honestly, he would have let him practice with the others, but he didn't even minimize the distance between his arms so that the ball didn't shoot through.

"Kentaro, are you listening?" Tadashi asked.

"Uh huh," he answered, clearly not listening, "Hey, when do you think I could go and try to block his spikes?" 

The question felt like a slap in the face. He could've gotten mad, he could've told the boy to respect his senior, he could've done anything else aside from what he did next, but he didn't see what good it would do to force someone to learn something they didn't want to.

"Sure," he ended up saying, "You can try to go and block him right now."

"Really?! Thanks man, you're the best!"

And off he went to stop Tanaka's cut shots. Well, he tried to anyway. But the second he confidently jumped in front of the net was the same second where he ended up on the floor, head spinning, and nose bloody.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry, I didn't think anyone was trying to block!" 

Tanaka was quickly crouching under the net, stammering apologies and heading to the other side to help the first year that he had just hit in the face. The other team members rushed to the boy's side as well, Ennoshita bringing an ice pack, and everyone else just wanting to see what had happened that caused such a commotion. Tadashi stood at the same spot he was at before, not having moved since the reckless boy had left him a while ago. 

"What happened?"

"Did he just receive the ball with his face?"

"I think he tried to block it."

"Hey! No one reacted like this when I got hit in the face-"

"Everyone, be quiet for just a second, would you?"

Ennoshita had gotten annoyed at all the unnecessary noise and was now trying to stop the blood flowing from the nose of the whiny boy in front of him.

"Yamaguchi!" he called out.

Everyone in the room was now looking at him as if it was his fault that the blocker got injured. At this point, Tadashi just wanted to enter a void and never resurface again. He knew it was his fault, but he wished Ennoshita wouldn't scold him in front of all the other club members, especially not in front of the first years, and especially not in front of Tsu-

"Will you help me bring him to the infirmary, please?" 

Tadashi blinked once, twice. The captain wasn't scolding him? 

"Everyone else, get back to what they were doing. The show's over."

Ennoshita nodded at him to tell him to get closer and help support Kentaro's other side, taking the left side for himself. They exited the gym and closed the door behind them, already hearing the sound of volleyballs hitting the floor and walls.

"I'm so sorry, Ennoshita. I shouldn't have allowed him to go. And it was Tanaka's spike too, of all things."

"You don't have to apologize for anything, Yamaguchi. Injuries happen when playing sports, this time is no different."

Kentaro groaned into the towel that was being pressed into his face to stop the bleeding, 

"...that was wild!" 

"Don't be so talkative right now Nakashima, you should be thankful we don't allow people to use their dice during practice, or else Tanaka would have totally wrecked your nose."

"Sorry, captain."

They were approaching the infirmary now, and the door was wide enough that all three of them could fit easily through the door without having to walk sideways or let Kentaro down. They placed him on a cot that was between two other students that seemed to have worse conditions than the volleyball player. Kentaro visibly gulped as he saw the bandage wrapped shin of a soccer player in the same room, and he decided to keep his mouth shut, now thinking that his injury was nothing to be proud of.

Tadashi adjusted the boy's position so that he could sit up better, taking great care to not accidentally touch his bloody nose. He was grateful that Ennoshita wasn't mad at him, even if he was a little mad at himself for allowing Kentaro to go. He should be a bit stricter next time with the first year, but he shouldn't be too pushy either, that's one of the things he used to hate when he was still learning.

"Oh yeah, wasn't Tsukishima supposed to be the one helping him, Yamaguchi?" the captain asked, bringing Tadashi out of his thoughts as he remembered that he had assigned the other middle blocker to teach Kentaro.

"Oh, I uh-"

"I can never understand that guy. If he's been slacking off again, you let me know-"

"No sir, he hasn't been slacking off!" Tadashi immediately defended, hoping that he hadn't ended up showing Kei in a bad light to his senior. He continued,

"I just volunteered to do it for him since, well, you know Tsukki isn't exactly the best at the whole patience thing..."

"Oh. Okay. Got it."

Tadashi would've volunteered to watch over Kentaro until he felt well enough to stand without getting dizzy, and let Ennoshita get back to free practice, but the nurse told him that they could just come back and check up on him later after practice since be was going to spend most of the time sleeping anyway.

So they walked back to the gym in silence as Ennoshita thought about how he had jumped to conclusions too fast about the blonde haired middle blocker, and Tadashi thought about how he acted so defensive when he could have explained it calmly. Both were overthinking, but they really had nothing to worry about.

"I'm sorry by the way, if I'm coming off too strong or whatever. This whole captain thing is just so new to me, you know?" Ennoshita said, breaking the silence.

Tadashi tensed, not knowing why the captain was apologizing. He took a deep breath and said, "Well, I mean, you're not coming off too strong actually. You're doing a great job so far."

"You really think so?"

"Totally, everyone in the club loves you."

Ennoshita sighed. He knew the guys wouldn't ever hate him, but he just kept feeling like he couldn't fill in the space that Daichi had left behind. He replied,

"I guess, but it's only been four weeks into the year, and I'm already feeling stressed out, especially about making it to Nationals."

Tadashi scanned his mind for any and every inspirational quote he could at that moment for the perfect thing to say to Ennoshita to try and encourage him, but he never really was the one you would go to when you wanted advice. 

"Oh," was all he said in reply.

They reached the gym, and Ennoshita started walking back to the benches to talk to Narita about who to suggest to Coach Ukai to put on the regular team. Tadashi called out in a final attempt to try and console the captain.

"Ennoshita!" he started, "Um... it's okay. I mean, it's okay that you're feeling stressed out. But you have to remember that we're all going to be here to help you out. The burden doesn't have to fall on your shoulders alone."

Ennoshita let the tension in his shoulders go as if he could visualize a weight being lifted, exactly like what Tadashi was talking about. He smiled an appreciative smile, and reached out to pat Tadashi on his shoulder.

"Same goes for you, Yamaguchi."

With that, he nodded as a farewell and jogged over to his destination. As the guy left, Tadashi could see another approach him in his peripheral vision, and he turned to see none other than his best friend walking over to him.

"Well you guys made it back in no time," Kei said.

"Oh. It's you," Tadashi sighed, still quite unsure if he had been confident enough to give the volleyball team captain advice or if he was just dreaming.

Kei's heart wrenched as he took that instead as Tadashi being disappointed in seeing him. He thought that Ennoshita had reprimanded Tadashi for letting Kentaro try to block Tanaka's spikes, and he felt guilty.

"Hey, I'm sorry... I should have just went and done the one on one instead of you. Whatever Ennoshita said to you, you can yell it all at me later," he apologized.

"What do you mean? Ennoshita didn't get mad," Tadashi replied.

"He didn't?"

"No, he didn't. And why are you sorry anyway? I was the one who volunteered to do it for you, silly."

Tadashi punched him in the shoulder playfully, the weak action already making the taller boy swing backwards with the force. Kei rubbed his shoulder on the spot where his friend had struck him, and followed him to the court where they both went to continue practicing. 

\----------

Tadashi rolled over in his bed in sweatpants and a hoodie to get to his bedside table where his phone had been ringing for a while. Someone was calling him to video chat, clearly, but he didn't bother to check the Caller ID and swiped the green telephone icon to answer.

"Ello ello, this is Tadashi Yamaguchi. How may I help you?"

"What took you so long to pick up?" It was Kei.

"I was singing along to my ringtone. You wouldn't get it since you still have the annoying default bell!"

"Well at least it doesn't take me two and a half years to answer the phone!"

Kei was not amused with Tadashi's antics. He had been stressing out ever since he realized that Tadashi hadn't been paying attention to his Chemistry classes, especially since there was a test coming up. He had been hoping that his friend would be a little bit more cooperative so that they could get through as much of the material as possible.

"Daww, I'm sorry Tsukki, I just don't wanna study!" Tadashi whined. He knew he had to do something to learn what he had missed but he was not looking forward to it. 

"Oh? Well why didn't you say so sooner?? Now you're totally going to get good marks on your test. Turns out you didn't need my help anymo-" Kei's voice was dripping with sarcasm, and it physically hurt Tadashi to have to endure another second of it. So he cut him off,

"Fine, fine. God, you're so annoying when you get petty."

He pushed up from the bed and slid across the room on a swivel chair, landing perfectly in front of his study desk. He set the phone on the wall behind the desk and grabbed the first notebook he saw, flipping it to the first page that didn't have any writing.

"That's not your Chemistry notebook."

Tadashi groaned as he shoved the notebook into a row of other notebooks, replacing it with a bright blue notebook that had cartoon laboratory apparatuses on them. He opened it to the first page where he found he had absentmindedly doodled a rocket blasting off into space over the whole page. He giggled as he brushed a finger over it, the lead of the pencil now leaving stains on his skin.

On the other side of the screen, Kei fought back a smile at the incredibly precious cinnamon roll before him. 

"Okay, so you're not going to need your periodic table yet. We're going to focus on balancing equations."

"Alright. Hit me."

A notification popped up on Tadashi's screen saying Kei had sent a picture. He picked his phone up immediately to view the photo, setting it back on the wall when he had opened it. He carefully copied the equation that was in the photo. The photo that Kei took wasn't so clear, so he had to squint to try to see what was written. He would've told Kei to just send another one, but he figured he was being enough trouble already.

As soon as he was done, he closed the picture display and leaned back, putting his hands in his sweater pockets. 

"All done!" he announced proudly. 

"Perfect. Now try balancing them." 

Tadashi began to open his mouth to complain about how he had no idea how to and he thought that Kei was going to teach him, but Kei cut him off completely with an explanation.

"Just try to, so that I can see where you're having trouble. I'll be working on my Biology homework, tell me when you're done."

"Oh! I can help you with that-"

"No. I know you're done with it, but I don't need help, I can handle it."

"But-"

"Focus, Yamaguchi."

Tadashi huffed and slouched over the table, getting closer to try to understand his own messy handwriting. All the numbers and letters he had written down whirled around, making up different equations he didn't even remember writing, and his head started to hurt. He looked up to his phone and found Kei writing with such confidence in his answers that he wondered why he even suggested helping him a while ago.

He brought his attention back to his hand to start writing, but he noticed he had subconsciously been twirling his coin around in his fingers inside his sweater pocket. 

He flicked his eyes over to Kei again, just to check if he had noticed- even if there was no way he could have. He then took out his coin and hesitantly flipped it, still making sure that Kei was occupied. The coin flew upwards, turning thrice before finally landing in Tadashi's open palm. He quickly slapped it on his arm and checked for the final result. 

Tails.

He mentally punched himself for taking the risk, it wasn't even worh it in the end. He opened a drawer and threw the coin into it, slamming it closed right after.

"Woah, everything alright there?" Kei had looked up from his work at the sound of the drawer slamming closed.

"Yeah, yeah," Tadashi said dismissively.

"If you're having a really hard time, I could just-"

"No, I swear, it was nothing. I can do this."

Tadashi hadn't even bothered to look up, too embarrassed to look at Kei after that massive failure. He scribbled furiously, despite not knowing what it was that he was scribbling. He had told Kei that he could do it, but he knew he couldn't. That coin made sure of it.

Two sides of a coin. 1 and 2. Most people would see it as a dice with only two values, but Tadashi had been smart enough to find a loophole after owning it his whole life. Heads and tails could also mean success or failure. He didn't know what force of nature made the system have this sort of loophole, but he wasn't complaining. 

He had first found out about it when they used to live in Shizuoka. Someone was picking on him for being a d2 yet again, and he just wanted it to stop. He pictured punching the bully with all his might, but he also saw a vision of himself punching the bully as weak as a person could. A burst of courage surged through him and he pulled out his coin, flipping it right in front of the bully. It landed on the floor, heads.

The bully started laughing as he saw the coin fall. Even though it landed on heads, he knew it made no dfference. 

Or at least he thought it made no difference until Tadashi, now fueled with hurt and anger, had hurled his fist to the bully's right cheek, sending him crashing into the wall beside him. The bully crumbled to the floor, arm badly dislocated, and nose bleeding. Other kids scrambled around trying to call an adult, but Tadashi just picked up his coin and ran away.

They moved cities after being issued a complaint by the bully's mom, and after paying for half of the hospital bills. But no one could explain how a 7 year old had done that much damage to someone who was much bigger and stronger than he was.

After that moment, Tadashi had only used the coin in that way sparingly. Every other time he absolutely had to, he switched back to values of 1 and 2. He didn't have any verbal or physical commands, it just kind of happened, and he could change it whenever. 

Now that the coin had landed on tails for his homework however, he was stuck having to deal with not only his own dyslexia, but also the added disadvantage of mind block from his coin. He squinted at the phone, having opened the picture display again, hoping that it would do something to help him understand what he was supposed to do, but to no avail.

To his surprise, low chuckling could be heard from the other boy, and Tadashi immediately closed the photo display to see Kei's smug smile- well, it was more genuine than smug but he always looked smug- shining through the screen. He qould have smiled himself if he didn't realize that the blonde was actually laughing at him.

"What??" he asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Kei replied between snickers that he could not hold back.

"Tsukki, I swear-"

"It's nothing!"

Tadashi made a pointed look at the phone camera, knowing that that would make direct eye contact to Kei on the other side. 

"There it is again!" he excalimed as Kei burst into another fit of laughter.

"I'm sorry! I'm- you just look as threatening as an angry kitten-"

Tadashi didn't even wait for Kei to finish the sentence, and he buried his face in his hands as he leaned back in his chair, embarrassed. 

"And you-" he began, after taking a deep breath, taking his notebook and shoving it into the camera as a smile adorned his face, "-are the worst tutor I've ever had!"

"I haven't even taught you anything yet!" Kei shot back, a smile also on his face.

"Exactly! You're just proving my point!"

"That makes no sense," Kei said finally, as if he had won the argument, even though he knew for sure that what Tadashi said made sense, "Anyway, your answer is wrong, you turned the nine into a six-"

"Ohh okay, so we're just gonna ignore-"

"-and the three is supposed to be before Calcium, not after-"

"Wooow-"

Tadashi gave up on trying to speak over Kei, deducing that he wasn't going to back down. He leaned back in his chair and just listened as the boy rambled on about what he should have done, what he shouldn't have done, and other things. As soon as he noticed Kei slow down, he took the opportunity and called out to his friend.

"Tsukki," he said.

"Hm?" 

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For everything."

Kei paused before giving a reply, "Of course Tadashi, it's no problem at all."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I really wanted to explain the other way that the coin works but I also wanted to add more time for readers to be able to understand the dynamic between Tsukishima and Yamaguchi which is that they basically just try to annoy each other all the time until sht gets real. Then they try and comfort each other, but idk. This is the last chapter I have in my bank and I'm not sure exactly when I'll have the motivation to be able to write another chapter soooo let's just say that this might be the last one for a long time. But maybe, just maybe, I will be able to add a few sentences every day and finish another chapter by next Sunday, but who knows? So yeah buh bye, have a good week and I'll see you when I see you. Cheers


	8. Are You Happy Sashimi?

Kei swiped left on his phone's home screen, then right, then left again, trying to look busy as he stood outside the men's bathroom, waiting for his best friend to finish up and meet him outside. He was sure there was something else he could do, like play a mobile game or type out the alphabet backwards, but he didn't think Tadashi would take this long. Having already started swiping, he decided to just continue.

He would've thought his act of looking busy was going quite well, if Kageyama hadn't shown up and poked his nose into what was exactly not his business.

"Watcha doing there, Kei? Seems interesting," the black haired boy said, calling out his bluff and leaning on the wall beside him. He took a sip out of a small milk carton that was in his hands. 

"Well it's more interesting than your life if you have to make small talk with me, I'll tell you that," Kei answered, putting his phone into his sling bag now that it was of no use.

"What do you mean? Was that a self deprecating joke?"

"Yamaguchi's in there," Kei continued, ignoring his friend's question and pointing his head towards the bathroom, "I didn't want to go in, in case people started talking to me."

"But wouldn't there be more people out here to try and talk to you?"

"You'd think so, right? But it's because there are more people that everyone else is content to just stick to their own friend groups."

"Oh. Well okay then. I'm just waiting for Hinata. He said he was in there too."

"Cool."

"Cool."

As if on cue, Hinata and Tadashi came out from the bathroom, chatting excitedly about seemingly anything and everything, and breaking the silence that Kei and Kageyama had fallen into.

"Tsukki!" Tadashi said, making both of the taller first years turn and see their shorter best friends, "Shouyo was just telling me about this great eatery deeper into 264th Street that his family owns, apparently it's not doing so well in terms of popularity so we'll have the place to ourselves!"

"Yeah, and the food's really good," Hinata butted in, as if he had already greeted the two uninterested second years to promote the place, "Kageyama was gonna go check it out today so I invited Tadashi to come with us! You can join too, Kei!"

"Getting a little too comfy there, using my first name so casually, my vertically challenged friend."

"What?!"

"Come on, Tsukki! I bet you'll love it. And you'd be helping Shouyo out" Tadashi interrupted, before Hinata could react or before Kei could throw another insult.

"How can you be sure that I'll love it, hm? Have you been there already?"

"Well, no. But Shouyo says it's good so I trust his judgement."

Kei and Tadashi always had lunch at Kei's house ever since primary school, since they didn't really go out much and they didn't want to stay in school. But the truth is that Kei didn't like his house a whole lot. It was always so big and empty, especially during the day when he was the only one there. And now that a golden opportunity had come for him to avoid the very structure he refused to call home, he decided to take it.

"Sure. But if it sucks, I'm leaving," he said, knowing that he wasn't going to be leaving even if it looked like a barn that was visited by two or three typhoons .

"I can't believe you'd trust that dumbass's sense of taste."

"Hey, I'm right here Kageyama. I can hear you!"

\----------

Kei lifted his head to see the sign of the place they were about to enter as Hinata proudly announced that they had arrived.

"Ta-daaaa!"

"Satire... and... Grinstone..."

Kei cringed as he read the name, thinking he could do so much better if he was given the chance, but he decided to just keep it to himself since a statement like that could ruin everyone's mood.

"Yeah, do you like it? I chose the name myself. Natsu said it was terrible, but you guys all think it's cool, right?" the orange haired first year said, turning towards his friends to see their reactions.

"It's amazing, Shouyo!"

"Yeah, it's really great. I never would've guessed that you came up with it," Kageyama commented.

"Hey, you take that back, right now!"

"What the- I'm saying I'm proud of you, dumbass."

"Doesn't look like it, grumpy."

"You shut your mouth, four eyes!"

The four of them walked in and took a seat at one of the five seater tables nearer into the eatery, Hinata in front of Kageyama, and Tadashi in front of Kei. It was higher than the rest of the tables, so much so that the chairs felt as high as highchairs, except that they had swivels and looked nothing like something babies would use.

Hinata stepped on the footrest of one of the swivel chairs to boost himself up onto the seat, deciding that maybe jumping onto it might result in him slipping off the other side and injuring himself. But he was unsuccessful, the footrest being too low.

"Can't we sit somewhere else?" he asked, obviously annoyed but not wanting to talk bad about his family's business.

"What's wrong, Shouyo?" Tadashi asked, oblivious to the fact that the chair was almost taller than his friend.

"Just jump. It's the only thing you're good for anyway," Kei suggested, not meaning to sound rude, but finding it hard to let go of his habit of insulting people for no reason at all.

"Shut up four eyes, it's not like you've got any shining qualities about you either."

Kei repeated what Kageyama had said in a high pitched mocking voice as the black haired boy glared at Kei. Not once did he take his eyes off of the blonde as he picked Hinata up under his arms and easily lifted him onto the chair, showing Kei that if he ever messed with Hinata, he messed with Kageyama as well.

Hinata realized he still had to get back down to order so he shouldn't have troubled Kageyama into getting him into the chair. But Kageyama was one step ahead of him.

"What do you want me to get for you, Hinata?" Kageyama asked, still glaring at Kei despite the blonde already having moved on and was now looking at the menu.

"Oh," Hinata replied, not expecting Kageyama to offer to order for him, "It's okay, I can order for myself-"

Kageyama reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet where he knew was just enough yen to buy two meals, now facing Hinata and giving him his full attention, "No, it's really okay. I have some extra money left over from last week's allowance-" 

"You were going to pay for me too?" Hinata asked, surprised at the thought of Kageyama doing something nice for him without being forced to.

"Well, yeah."

"Aw, that's so sweet, Your Highness. Are you sure you aren't growing soft on your little citrus friend?" Kei said, a mischievous look burning in his eyes. The flame only flared as he got the exact reaction he wanted out of the generous first year.

"I-I'm just paying for him, dammit! Hinata, just tell me what you're having already!"

Tadashi and Kei shared a look, Kei raising an eyebrow, silently asking if the green haired boy had noticed Kageyama's stutter and hilariously red face and Tadashi subtly blinking to show that yes, he had noticed, but that Kei shouldn't have done that to trigger him.

"I-I'll just have some miso soup..." Hinata replied, hiding his face with the menu in his hands and hoping that the chaos would just end.

As Kageyama left to place in his and Hinata's orders, Kei and Tadashi went back to their telepathic communication. A total of zero words were uttered during their whole exchange, but through vigorous blinking and the occasional finger tapping, Tadashi got the idea that Kei was telling him that Kageyama didn't have any extra allowance since he spent most of his money on Hinata's new notebook set that he wouldn't buy for himself in case his sister would need for her classes. Kei also got that Tadashi was telling him that they were close friends and that Kageyama was just looking out for Hinata. Kei signed that he agreed with 'looking out for him', but wasn't so sure about the 'close friends' bit.

Despite their intentions to not be seen, Hinata had realized that they were communicating without talking, most likely since he saw what looked like twitching and thought that they were having a seizure, and then realized that it was just their secret language that they thought no one noticed, but everyone was close to deciphering.

"What are you guys talking about?" the shortest first year asked, wanting to be part of what seemed to be the quietest conversation in the world.

"Hm? Oh, we were just talking about how boring it is here- Ow!"

"What Tsukki is trying to say is that we were surprised at how no one comes here since it's a really nice place."

"Oh, alright then," Hinata didn't seem so convinced, but he didn't want to push it anymore. In truth, he was thinking about how Kageyama reacted, but he realized he also needed to keep the conversation going, "It's only because we're too far from the main road. Not a lot of people would think about going deeper into 264th Street, even if it was near the school. It was a bad business choice."

Kageyama was walking back now, holding two big plastic cups of milk tea in his hands, the straws being held up by his fingers.

"Here's your tapioca juice, Hinata," he said, placing one in front of Hinata, and keeping one for himself.

"Tapioca juice?" Tadashi repeated, now fishing for his own wallet because he'd already decided what to get.

"Hm? Oh yeah, that's what Hinata calls pearl milk tea," Kageyama explained.

"Pearl milk tea??" Tadashi repeated again.

"Why yes, Tadashi. Are you only capable of repeating what others are saying?" Kei retorted.

"Oh shut up, Tsukki. You don't call it pearl milk tea either, do you??"

"No, I don't. I call it bubble tea, you know that. And anyway, what are you so surprised about? Pearl milk tea is a huge improvement from whatever you call it."

"Hey! Boba Tea is a completely reasonable name for it."

"Mind explaining to our fellow friends, Romans, countrymen why you call it Boba?"

Tadashi narrows his eyes at Kei, blinking a silent 'fuck you', since he really didn't think it was such a big deal but the boy with glasses blinked back the same. Tadashi turns to his friends and explains calmly that he called it Boba Tea because it sounded like Boba Fett from Star Wars, and he found it cool.

"Oh yes, totally," Kei fakes agreement, "A cup of harmless, and absolutely delicious milk tea can definitely be compared to a ruthless, vengeful, killing machine."

Tadashi pushes his elbows down on the table to boost him forward as he flicks Kei's forehead to try to get him to shut up for the thrird time today.

"Ow!"

Kei quickly tries to counterattack, but Tadashi swatted away his hand before he could get the chance.

"Now you're just being mean," he whines.

"But you love it."

\----------

Tadashi had already finished his lunch, sashimi and rice that had come with a note wrapped around the chopsticks, "Is that a pair of chopsticks in your pants or are you just happy sashimi?"

It was then that he realized just why it was called satire and grinstone. He wonders if they had a whole catalog of pun for each dish that they served. If they did, did Hinata make them all? He reread the pick up line that was given to him and decided that it was definitely something that Hinata would write.

He folded the note into an origami box and was now putting folded paper stars that he made out of the tissue from the eatery while he listened to his friends who were just talking. Apparently Hinata had been swinging his feet under the table, repeatedly hitting Kageyama's, and Kageyama was not having a fun time.

"Are you trying to break my legs or something??" Kageyama asked.

"Well it's not my fault that your legs are all over the place! Where else am I supposed to put my feet?" 

"Rest it on the footrest! That's what they're for!"

"Well, I can't reach them!" Hinata said, emphasizing every word.

"Children, can we please be civil about this?"

"Mind your own business, four eyes!"

And the argument ended there, Hinata deciding to just let his legs hang and Kei rolling his eyes at Kageyama not being able to come up with any more creative nicknames to call him when he was annoyed, but he decided not to say anything since he really was trying to break his habit. 

"Man, I'm trying to show off my setting to Ennoshita so that he can vouch for me to Coach Ukai, but he keeps focusing on Tanaka's damn cut shots!" Kageyama said, furiously slurping up his boba tea after, almost choking on a pearls.

"You think he's checking shots? I'm pretty sure he's just checking Tanaka out- Ow! Stop doing that!"

Tadashi sits back down in his seat after flicking Kei's forehead again. Kei snatched the box of tissues from Tadashi, knowing it was the only way to get back at him since he couldn't reach for his forehead. He probably wouldn't try to hurt him either even if he could though, so a forehead flick was out of the question.

"You don't understand, Kei. I need to be on the team," Kageyama continues the conversation.

"I don't know what you're so worried about, Kageyama," Hinata stated, adding rice to soak up his almost finished bowl of soup, "You're obviously going to be one of the regulars."

"Obviously??" Kageyama questions.

"Yeah, you're the only setter, stupid!" Hinata says.

Before Kageyama could explain his doubts, Hinata continued talking, "I'm trying to show Coach Ukai that my blocking is getting better so he doesn't have to be afraid when I end up in front during rotation! I'm more than just your demon quick spiker!"

"And I'm more than just your demon quick setter!"

"Stop yelling, dammit!" Kei yelled. He was now cutting squares of tissue into thin strips and giving them to Tadashi to fold them into more stars, "You guys have nothing to worry about. If one of you gets in, you both get in. You're both great players anyway, so take a chill pill. The stress isn't good for your worry lines."

Kei takes another bite from his katsudon before continuing, "I coudn't care less about impressions. If they think I'm good for the match, then they'll put me in. It's all for the team anyway, so I shouldn't take any of it personally. I'm just scared that Coach Ukai will decide to put Narita in instead of me."

"I don't think so," Hinata disagreed, it was also pretty obvious to the three others that Kei was going to get in.

"Well, you never know, it's his last year and Ennoshita might vouch for him," Kei said, still doubting.

"Really? You know Ennoshita isn't like that, Kei."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Tsukki!" Tadashi interrupted loudly, they were really taking advantage of this empty eatery, and all heads turned to him. He shrunk back as a reflex of everyone now looking at him, but still held his ground. Kei purposefully looked back down at the tissue he was tearing to at least reduce his friend's embarrassment, even if he was the one who his friend was talking to, and Tadashi was stuck between being grateful that he had kept his discomforts in mind, or disappointed that he couldn't trust him to be brave enough, it was just sudden attention after all. But he was sick of hearing his best friend talk about himself as if he wasn't one of the best players on the team.

"You don't have anything to worry about either, you know," he continued, "Aside from the fact that you're the tallest on the team, you're also our best middle blocker. So stop shit talking yourself."

"Yeah, Kei. It's almost like you were fishing for compliments or something."

"You know I fucking wasn't," Kei snapped.

"Okay okay, geez. Sorry dude."

It seems everyone had something good to say about everyone so far, with Hinata somewhat encouraging Kageyama, Kei defending Hinata, and Tadashi saying the good things about Kei. But would anyone have anything to say for Tadashi?

"If anyone should be worried about being left out if Narita gets in, it's me- not you, Tsukki."

Silence.

He didn't expect anyone to defend him anyway. He continued,

"Don't worry guys, you're all going to get in, trust me," he said, his insecurities already creeping up on him like vines making their way to cover his eyes and wrap around his throat until he couldn't breathe anymore or see just how good he actually was.

"You're going to make it in to the regulars team too, Tadashi!"

Tadashi looked up to see Hinata looking straight at him, his fist firm on the table after he placed it down for dramatic effect.

"Yeah, don't you even doubt it for a second!" Kageyama added.

"Guys..." 

Tadashi felt the vines loosen, they were still very noticeably there, but now they hurt him less. He thought about how lucky he was to have friends like Hinata and Kageyama, who could cheer anyone up in a matter of seconds. He noticed that Kei had nothing to say, but that was fine, he wouldn't have had anything to say either if he was in his place. 

"And when you do, I'll treat everyone to some mochi!" Hinata announced.

"Yeah! Wait, what?"

"Right after practice next Monday, I'm gonna buy you all mochi!"

Hinata started piling up their plates after he shared his intentions to give a large amount of money just for some snacks despite not having that much to spend. Kageyama watched him in disbelief as he reach across the table to get Kei's bowl and almost fall off of his own chair.

"You don't need to do that Shouyo," Tadashi says with a nervous laugh, knowing that giving away free food wasn't the best thing for the business right now. He helped Hinata reach the bowl and gave it to him instead.

"Oh I know I don't have to, but I want to!"

"We can all just pay for it ourselves, dumbass."

And the duo first years started arguing again despite the initially wholesome encouragement that Hinata had just offered a while ago. Tadashi sighed happily as he brought the plates that Hinata had stacked to the counter, as an act of advanced gratitude to him if he was going to go through with the free mochi idea, although he really hoped he wouldn't.

He was grateful that they had also encouraged him, though he knew it still wasn't one hundred percent clear that he would become a regular. He'd have to work extra hard and show everyone that he was worth being on the team, not just as a pinch server- especially since Kinoshita could definitely take his spot with that, too.

There was a whole week left anyway, surely he could find something to do as a middle blocker to impress the third years? It didn't help that he had the issue about the Chemistry test either, or that he was still learning to restrain himself from using his coin. Who knew? He just might use it to solve both those problems. 

He turned around and made his way back to the table, where he finally caught Kei's eye for the first time since his self-deprecating statement earlier. Why did he always seem to have a hard time looking him in the eye? Was he that pitiful to look at?

Kei looked worriedly at him, not even blinking or tapping to ask him if he was okay now. Tadashi smiled at him to let him know that he was. He had remembered what Saeko told him in the car before, that they would always make it past all things as long as they had each other to depend on. He agrees, sure. He just wishes that people would be there for him a lot more too. 

But as he sat down as Hinata defended his giving away free stuff to one of the few customers they had just to comfort his friend, Kageyama saying to just use the many good qualities that Tadashi had instead of food and freebies, and Kei handing him a folded tissue star with a smiley face on it, he realized that they were there for him too, after all.


	9. The Shirtless Society

Tadashi waited in the club room for everyone to leave so that he could change, pretending to pack away his bag. Everyone was being extra chatty today, and it was easy to see why. Everyone was motivated by the possibility of being able to play on the court officially, so they wanted to show their best. All the confidence in the room was daunting, and Tadashi almost wished that he had stayed to clean up his classroom so he would have arrived later. 

"Check out these guns!" Noya said, flexing shirtless in front of the mirror to make sure he was showing off the most muscle mass he could to everybody.

"No, check out these guns," Tanaka said, pushing Noya aside to see himself in the mirror too. They were both flexing as hard as they could, to the point where their veins protruded and it looked like it physically pained them. They were trying to show off to everybody, Ennoshita- who was part of the decision making of the team members- especially. Ennoshita was not amused.

"Can you both shut up and quit acting like children?" he said, turning around to see both third-years red in the face and panting, their efforts wasted as Ennoshita saw none of their flexing, "I'm trying to hear this voice recording my mom sent." 

Ennoshita took one look at Tanaka's shirtless body, and looked away immediately, mentally punching himself and saying, "And put on a damn shirt, both of you!"

"Aw come on, Ennoshita. Live a little!" Noya said, walking away to find a shirt in his bag that was only half smelly from last practice.

"I'm pretty sure I'm still alive, Nishinoya," Ennoshita called out.

"You're just jealous that I've got this rocking bod you could only ever wish for," Tanaka said, flexing his muscles in front of Ennoshita, hoping to get any sort of reaction. 

But the smugness from his face disappeared as their captain sighed wearily and stood up to face him, peeling off his shirt to show a body more lean than his. He stood at the same height as the overconfident third year, but his countenance made him appear taller. He smirked, "Please, Ryu. If anyone's going to be wishing, it's you." He turned around and reached for a white shirt that was neatly folded in his bag, "Now go put on a shirt so we can start practice."

Tadashi could only hear everything happen as he faced another mirror in the room, brushing nonexistent tangles in his hair in an attempt to occupy himself. Ennoshita walked out the door with a water bottle and his cellphone, a triumphant and childish look on his face as if he had just overcome the world's scariest monster.

Kinoshita and Narita were whispering amongst themselves how Ennoshita looked so proud of himself for doing that. Hinata joined the conversation and they told him just how much he needed that confidence boost since he was feeling a little down lately.

Kei just rolled his eyes as he put his glasses back on, having changed in a far corner of the room. It was then that he caught Tadashi's eye in the mirror with overbrushed hair and formal uniform still on. He knew he was waiting for everyone to leave so he cleared his throat and ushered everyone out.

"Alright guys, drama's over. Let's get to the gym."

He looked over his shoulder to where Tadashi was as Hiro and Kentaro ran past him on the way out.

"You gonna be okay here, Yamaguchi?"

Tadashi answered with a nod and he left the clubroom, closing the door behind him. 

Tadashi let go of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and dropped to the floor. He took off his shirt with his back to the entrance and his torso lower than the view of the windows, still not trusting the privacy of the room. 

He heard the sound of metal hitting the floor as he pulled the shirt over his head and looked to see that his coin had fallen out of the shirt pocket of his uniform. As he picked it up, it felt warmer in his hand instead of metal cold, as if it was begging him to use it. He shoved it quickly into his bag before the temptation could overcome him. As he did, he heard the sound of the toy rattling in there, so he took it out. 

It looked as childish as the last time he saw it. He even felt a little silly to still be holding onto it until now when it had no use except to be emotional support at times. With that, all thoughts of using the coin were pushed far into the back of his head. He wondered if any of the other boys were planning to use their dice during the observation week. He wondered if some of them have maybe already used them. So what if they did? He'd just have to work harder, nothing new. 

Speaking of observation week, he decided to hurry up a bit and not waste any more time sulking. How could he get into the team if he couldn't even get to practice? He stuffed his uniform and the toy back into his bag, thinking he could arrange it later, and sped out the door and into the gym.

Now was the time to show them what he was really capable of.

\----------

Tadashi entered the gym to find everyone doing their own individual warm ups before practice started. Well, everyone except Kentaro. Tadashi saw him step on and off the stadiometer in the corner of the gym repeatedly. He seemed to be measuring his height, but it was useless since it moved every time he did. Whatever result he got, it would be inaccurate. Tadashi didn't understand why he had to measure his height again anyway, they had just measured it last Friday, and today was only Tuesday. 

He was about to go and ask him why he was wasting warm up time since he knew a little about pretending to do something to avoid doing something else. He thought that maybe he was too shy to join the others in warming up, even if they'd already done it many times before. But before he could, Coach Ukai blew his whistle to signal that it was time to start the drills. 

The boy who he thought was insecure about joining the others was now jogging over like a puppy chasing a fetch ball. He didn't even have a problem striking up conversation as they lined up from jersey number for the starting five-lap jog around the gym. 

"Tamura!" he said, jumping up and down, using Hiro's shoulder as his boost. 

"H-hey Kentaro. Um, I think you should be in front of me..." the orange haired first year said.

"Hm? Oh yeah, right."

Tadashi kept his gaze in front of him, looking at everyone else lining up and hoping that the first years wouldn't start talking to him. He really couldn't match Kentaro's energy. His vision was blocked as walked in front of him to line up as well. He turned around and looked down at him.

"Hey, everything alright?" the boy with glasses asked, noticing his slight discomfort.

"Yeah, everything's super," Tadashi replied, now feeling better that he was talking with Kei. Surely the first years would respect the fact that he was already having a conversation with someone else, right?

"Hey guys! Great week ahead of us huh?" 

Guess they didn't.

Kei just turned around and ignored the first year middle blocker, now focusing on the drills that were about to start.

"Yeah, good luck to you guys," Tadashi said, not even turning around, thinking that was the end of the conversation.

But as they started moving and Kentaro continued talking, he realized that it wasn't the end just yet.

"Oh, I'll need luck alright."

Tadashi didn't reply, he just prayed that the boy would get the hint and talk to someone else instead. Looking back though, there wasn't really anyone else to talk to except the other first year.

"Hey buddy, you gonna use your dice this week?" Kentaro asked, trying to salvage the conversation.

"What? Will you??" Hiro asked from behind Kentaro.

"I'm not talking to you, Tamura."

"Sorry, Kentaro."

"So, Freckles? you down to cheat a little?"

Tadashi narrowed his eyes in disbelief at the ignorance of the first year, still keeping his eyes forward as the boy very loudly announced that he was willing to cheat, it was probably some sort of joke. Tadashi thought to shut him up,

"No, what the hell? Are you playing a prank on me or something?"

"I'm dead serious. See, no offense to you, but you might actually need it," the first year continued anyway.

Kei had turned around in curiosity, only being able to hear the situation happening behind him and half thinking to stop this kid from lowkey insulting his best friend. Now that they were a small distance away from each other, he was more able to see the first year behind Tadashi in the line, and noticed that there was something different about him, but he couldn't really place what it was.

Tadashi turned around too, thinking it would help him get his point across as he spoke, "You have to be pulling on my leg-" 

He was caught off guard as the first year who last week still had to look up to him, now looked to be at his eye level, or even a little taller than him. Tadashi's next step went wrong, and he tripped over his own foot, sending him crashing into Kei, Kentaro and Hiro almost getting caught in the collision. They fell to the ground, the sound of it barely drawing the attention of the other team members.

"Woah. You really need to watch out, buddy!" the first year said, extending his hand to help the green haired junior up.

Tadashi pushed himself off of Kei and spun around, using both hands to support him as he leaned back and looked up with wide eyes at the reason for his fall.

"H-how did-"

Tadashi tried to ask the boy how he had grown so tall, but was cut off when he heard grumbling come from beside him. Kei was standing up, looming over the first years who were caught in the collision.

"Hey, _buddy_ , why don't you leave the chit chat until after practice," he said, reaching his limit of patience after being annoyed by his obnoxious voice since before he could start talking to Tadashi.

Kentaro drew his hand back. Saying nothing more, he ran to Hinata who was the last one in the moving line before Tadashi fell, Hiro following behind him. Kei immediately turned around and offered his hand instead to help Tadashi stand but immediately lifted it and pretended to scratch his head when he realized that Tadashi was already getting up.

"Did you see that?" Tadashi asked, asking nobody in particular and making Kei feel like he wasn't even there.

"Hm? See what?" Kei said in response, brushing off the fact that he was hurt. 

"Oh, nothing. It was probably just me. I might need to get glasses, haha," Tadashi explained with a smile. Kei smiled back.

The smile disappeared as soon as he started jogging again, leaving Kei behind even more confused than before as he tried imagining Tadashi in glasses and ended up blinding himself with the sheer cuteness. 

The rest of the drills went without a hitch as Kentaro and Hiro kept their mouths shut around the second year middle blockers despite having to line up behind them numerous times and having no one else to talk to. The second years themselves remained quiet as they stood at the back wall and waited for Ennoshita to announce roles for the practice match for that day. 

Kei watched as Tadashi raised his water bottle then let the bottle linger at his mouth, too busy to think about drinking or even putting it down. Kei followed his gaze to see he was staring intently at none other than Kentaro Nakashima who was confidently walking around shirtless despite not even being that sweaty. Hiro was beside him, urging him to put his shirt back on. 

"Yam-"

"Alright everyone, settle down, settle down. We'll have three vs. three today so everyone's gotta pull their weight," Coach Ukai said as he stood on a bench trying to get everyone's attention. 

He stepped down as soon as he saw everyone gather around. Ennoshita waited a while before starting to talk.

"We'll have four teams of three. This first team will be wearing the green jerseys. That'll be me, Noya, and Kentaro. Oh, and could I ask you guys to please get the jerseys?"

Noya and Kentaro sped off to get the box with the different colored jerseys from the storage room, using up so much more energy than necessary, but not really caring anyway.

"Blue team will be Kageyama, Kinoshita, and Tadashi. Yellow will be Tsukishima, Tanaka, and Hiro. Red team will be Narita and Hinata, and Coach Ukai's going to fill in for the empty space."

People started murmuring at the unfairness of Coach Ukai playing for a team.

"We'll be having three sets maximum for each match, 25 points each set. Yellow against red first, then green and blue second. Defeated against defeated then winners will fight winners to get the overall standing. Planning time starts now."

Noya and Kentaro returned with the jerseys and everyone went to get one with their team color. Kei went to meet up with Tanaka and Hiro, hearing Coach Ukai yell at Kentaro for putting the jersey on his bare sweaty body as he left.

"Put a shirt on first Nakashima! What is this, the shirtless club?"

"Come on Eiffel Tower, we only have five minutes," Tanaka said, already separated from the group with Hiro. 

Kei listened to the discussion, but he couldn't keep himself from glancing over at Tadashi every now and then, seeing that he was still observing the first year middle blocker. The first game went, Ennoshita, Noya, and Kentaro taking two sets from Tsukishima, Tanaka, and Hiro. Tanaka congratulated them both for doing their best as the acting leader of the yellow team and told them to take a break and watch the techniques of both groups in the current game so that they can at least win third place.

The second match went slower than the first, the rallies being longer, causing their resolve to be depleted because of the stress. Rotations were quick to return to original since there were only three people each team, so most of the time Tadashi would end up in front of Kentaro on the other side of the net. They both seemed to be in good spirits, but Kei noticed that Tadashi looked like he was trying to force a smile. 

On the court, Tadashi was indeed trying to force a smile as they lost a point despite working hard to keep the ball in play. Something was keeping him from focusing and giving his all into the game. He wanted to show everyone that he was still a good sport, but it was really hard when he knew that the other team had a cheater.

"Timeout!"

The whistle blew as Mr. Takeda signaled a timeout. Tadashi needed it, but he took his sweet time getting off the court, comparing the top of the net to the top of Kentaro's head. The boy in question tossed him a bottle of water as an apology for- he didn't know what he was apologizing for- for pissing Kei off apparently. It was at this time that he confirmed that no, he was not seeing things. Kentaro had grown 5 centimeters taller in the four days that they had not met each other for practice and there was no other explanation except that he used his dice. 

That also explained why Kentaro had been so insistent to ask him to cheat a while ago, because he was cheating too. It was unfair. He was trying his best to improve by himself, and he was losing easily to some dice-reliant kid. 'Easily' wasn't the right word, though.

That's right, he had still been able to hold his own despite his opponent's added height. Kentaro was wrong, he didn't need to cheat to have a chance at getting into the regular team. He was going to win this match, then the next, then the next, then Nationals, and he was going to do it all without his damn coin, no matter what anyone thought.

He stepped back onto the court, Kinoshita's game plan in his head. He was up front, Kageyama behind him at his left, and they were all determined to win. He turned and saw Kei staring anxiously at him. Tadashi smiled at the guy, thinking that he was probably worried about him. Kei smiled back and Tadashi turned his attention back to the game. He felt a fire in his lungs, but it didn't hurt. He felt it burn through the vines of his insecurity, and he could see clearly.

_Just you watch Kei, I'll give you something to be proud of._

\----------

The last game had finished, Kageyama, Kinoshita, and Tadashi taking the first place, Hinata and Narita taking second place, Ennoshita, Noya, and Kentaro getting third, and Tsukishima, Tanaka, and Hiro taking last place.

Tadashi immediately ran to the water fountain, the bottles still not being refilled from the last game. He ran his head through the flow of the water, not being able to take a shower until Coach Ukai dismisses them- not that he would be comfortable enough to take a shower at school anyway. Other people ran right after him and waited impatiently behind him to drink and the coach was chugging down his own pitcher of water at the benches. 

The final game was intense. Hinata and Narita went all out, and it didn't help that Coach Ukai was playing for them either- even if he was holding back. Kageyama gave it his all as well without getting too excited and setting the ball too far, too fast. Kinoshita went all out as well, making absolutely sure he was there to hit the ball hard and fast to the other side, giving no time for reaction. And of course Tadashi gave it his all to make sure the ball didn't make it to the ground. And if he could help it, not even past the net. 

After being consumed with guilt because of standing at the fountain too long despite just getting there, he left for others to use it. He couldn't sit down just yet, or his blood would shoot up to his head. He head to the walls so that he could at least lean against them and regret leaving the fountain too early. He could really use some more water right about now. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead with the rim of his shirt. As he let his shirt fall, he saw Kei appear directly in front of him.

"Wahh!" he jumped back in shock and punched a water bottle out of his hands.

"What the- why take it out on the water bottle?" Kei said, going to fetch the rolling water bottle.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Tsukki~"

Tadashi mindlessly took the water bottle from Kei and downed half of it in one go, pouring the rest of it on his head. He watched the water drip from his hair as he placed his hands on his knees and felt the fire in his lungs slowly dissipating with every heavy breath.

"Great game today, Yams," Kei cringed as he imagined a pile of yams in the shape of a human, now vowing to never use that nickname again, "You really showed that Nakashima who's boss."

Meanwhile, Kei had yet to avert his eyes since Tadashi had greedily snatched the water bottle from his hands. He just stood there like a lovelorn idiot staring at Tadashi's heaving, panting, drenched, disheveled-

"Can you get me some more, maybe?" Tadashi asked, he had heard Kei's compliment, but he really needed a drink.

"Hm?" Kei snapped out of his trance, looking around in panic before meeting Tadashi's eyes again, barely keeping himself together.

"Can I have some more water? I would get some myself, but my legs won't work anymore."

"Your w-what?" Kei had totally just thought of that sentence out of context just now, but he needed to do something about what Tadashi just asked him to do.

"Oh, right. You're tired too. I'm just gonna go get- are you alright, Tsukki?"

"I- water! I'll go get some!" and Kei started to turn for the water fountain, but Tadashi called out for a final word.

"Tsukki!"

He turned around.

"We're both getting into the regular team, alright??" Tadashi said.

"Count on it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm not sure if I double posted a chapter so I just deleted the last two and reposted them, I'm so sorry. But anyway, here are two new chapters to make up for missing the last Sunday's update. Thank you so much for all the kudos and I hope you'll enjoy the story more as you continue reading! Cheers!


	10. Unbelievable Sights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know I haven't been updating in a while, I'm sorry, but here I am with another chapter. My characterization might be getting worse but hey _it is what it is._ So yah, happy reading. Cheers!

Tadashi was on his bed trying to write his own punny pick up lines for the Satire and Grinstone menu, but he was getting very annoyed by a strand of hair falling in front of his face every few seconds. Kei was right, his hair really was growing long. He went to look for a stray hair tie anywhere in his room, even though he knew he wouldn't find one in all the mess. In all honesty, he was just procrastinating. He knew he really needed to study for Chemistry, but frankly, he was fully uninterested. He exited his room and went straight for his older sister's room, hoping that there would be at least something he could use to keep his hair back. 

He stood in front of the door and knocked. Of course, no one was inside, his sister being away for work in America, but he did it anyway out of respect. He flicked on the lights and entered the room to find numerous band posters up that were wilting along the corners as if they wanted to peel themselves off of the walls. The bed was unruly and there were some shoes scattered around the floor. The dark green rug in the center had crumbs and dirt stuck in the hooks of the cloth, and Tadashi could've sworn he saw something moving in there.

It had been two months since Yumeko Yamaguchi had been inside her room. She always left in such a hurry that she never had the chance to clean up before she left. Tadashi would have done it, but he didn't even know where to begin with all the mess. His mother would usually just leave the room be until a week before she would sanitize the room from top to bottom. Yumeko would always feel bad and promise to clean it up next time, but again, she's never able to.

Tadashi stepped over the rug as quickly as he could before he could disturb whatever creature that was living there. He made his way to the vanity dresser and found just what he needed. There were two black hair ties sitting on top of the table, and a few small rubber elastic bands strewn around. There was even a hair clip in the far off corner with an infinity symbol on it that he thought would be cool to use as well. 

He tied his hair in a ponytail and made sure he kept that specific strand of hair tied back. But although it was long, it wasn't long enough to be bunched up with the rest of the hair. Tadashi clipped it up and out of the way now, the infinity symbol reflecting light and giving off the illusion of a rainbow.

"Perfect," he said, now heading for the door.

He looked around at the room one last time and decided that he was going to start cleaning one day, and he would start with that godforsaken rug. Then he turned off the lights and walked back to his room, happy that his face was now free from any distractions.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket as a call tone sounded out. He changed his ringtone to a more basic tune so he wouldn't be tempted to let the song just play, but with a little spin so he wasn't so basic. 

It was Kei calling for a video chat. Tadashi accepted the voice call and answered, "Ello ello, this is Tadashi Yamaguchi. How may I help you?"

"Get your Chemistry notebook out, I want to see if you still remember anything I taught you." 

"Seriously?" Tadashi said with a laugh, not being able to get away from having to study for Chemistry even after trying so hard to avoid it. He was a little bit hurt that Kei hadn't even noticed that he had picked up right away, but it was such a small thing anyway, so he just let it go.

"Seriously," the blonde replied, "I really hope you're not thinking about winging the test because this isn't the type of thing you can pass by just guessing."

Tadashi didn't reply to that, not having the energy to argue. He was more focused on getting back to his room now and getting started on studying so that it could be over with.

"Are you not going to turn the camera on?" Kei asked, surprised that Tadashi hadn't immediately accepted the video chat like he always did.

"Just wait for a sec you oversized chopstick-"

"Chopstick??"

"-I'm not in my room right now and the house is a mess. Mom wouldn't want me displaying the place while it looks like a wild boar ran through it."

"I bet your room is just as messy though."

"You're not wrong there."

Tadashi entered his room and closed the door behind him. He tried tidying the room a bit by making his bed and folding some dirty clothes that were on the floor. After that, he set the phone up on the wall in front of his desk like last time and turned on the camera. He sat down and got the notebook that had the writings of their previous discussion. 

"Okay, so I have a few more examples here for you-" Kei started to say, but he paused for a while at the sight of Tadashi's now tied hair and very obvious rainbow pin then asked, "-what is that?"

"What is what?" Tadashi asked, looking around and trying to see what Kei was talking about. Seeing nothing, he raised a hand to he back of his head and remembered that his hair was now tied back and that might have been what Kei was talking about.

"Oh, this? My hair was getting in the way. I needed to keep it back somehow," Tadashi continued.

"Not that, stupid. I'm talking about the shining, shimmering, splendid, rainbow infinity clip."

"🎶Shiiiining, shiiiimmering, spleeeendid. Tell me princess-🎶"

"Alright, forget I asked," Kei said, despite knowing that he had already gotten the ball rolling and that Tadashi wasn't going to be stopping that easily.

"Aw c'mon, sing with me!"

"No-"

"🎶Now when did you last let your heart deciiiiiide🎶"

"Yamaguchi-"

"🎶A WHOLE NEW WORLDD!🎶"

"I don't think that's the next lyrics-"

"Hey!" Tadashi suddenly said, as if he remembered something. He stopped singing and continued the song in hums while he went for his backpack that he had thrown all the way across the room when he had gotten home. He pulled out a piece of paper that had print on it and ran back to his desk. It had the instructions and rubric of a school project that they were going to have. And apparently, Tadashi had forgotten to mention this to Kei. He continued, "We're gonna have to start working on that infographic poster for Media and Information Literacy!"

"And by we, you mean me," Kei said, remembering all those times before when they would be paired up or even just put in the same group where Tadashi would do nothing but sing and crack jokes.

"Well I mean if you're offering, I'm not saying no," Tadashi said, stuffing the paper into one of his desk drawers among all the junk food wrappers and old test papers. He dug around in the pile of trash for an unopened candy bar somewhere, "Besides, I'm a great entertainer!"

He found an old strawberry flavored starburst pack with only a few pieces left. 

"You want some?" he asked Kei, fully knowing that any answer would make no difference since he couldn't really give it. Kei shook his head anyway, not even willing to play along. His mind was on something else, and he was too afraid to ask Tadashi since it might ruin his good mood. He saw his friend unwrap the candy and pop it into his mouth before starting to hum again, a conversation not being the priority of the moment. 

"Yamaguchi..." he started, not sure where he was going with it. 

"What's wrong?" the green-haired boy asked worriedly, sensing the seriousness in his friend's voice. He fully directed his attention to him and listened to him talk as he continued.

"A while ago... did you... I'm not- I'm not accusing you but-"

"Tsukki, if you've got something to say, just say it. Don't worry."

Kei leaned back in his seat as he prepared himself to ask what he was about to ask. In his peripheral vision, he caught a glimpse of a silver d17 dice with crystal blue lines with specks of gold on it sitting inside a small glass box at the edge of his table. He couldn't even remember the last time he took it out of the box, and he certainly didn't see a point in the future qhere he would ever use it. He focused on the boy in the screen ahead of him, willing the dice out of his sight and finally opening his mouth to speak.

"Did you use your coin today at practice?"

Tadashi took two seconds longer to reply as he thought about the fact that Kei actually considered the fact that he had used his coin, as if he couldn't be good at the game without using it. But then he brushed it aside because then again, even he was surprised at himself- he couldn't blame Kei, especially since he had already gone out of his way to assure him that he wasn't accusing him at all. He even repeated it again, seeing as Tadashi was disturbed by his question.

"I didn't mean to make it sound like I was accu-"

"No, I didn't," Tadashi said, cutting him off before he could finish his apology. He really had to stop making Kei feel bad for him.

"Oh," Kei blinked, "I figured as much anyway. I was just worried that you would think about using it, especially after Kentaro just went ahead and got away with it," Kei clarified.

"Yeah... but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway, you know that."

Kei was feeling like a piece of shit now for just ruining the mood. He would've left it alone, but he had to know. He didn't want Tadashi to feel so hopeless that he had to use his coin.

A loud succession of knocks sounded at Kei's bedroom door, followed by the jingling of keys after the person had realized that it was locked. Another attempt to open the door resulted in a thud, as there was a deadbolt on Kei's door as well. The person on the other side could only groan and wait for Kei to let them in.

Kei had already stood up to get the door, bringing his phone with Tadashi still on the line along with him. When he opened the door, he was met with the annoyed face of his younger sister, Hana.

"Mom said you're not supposed to lock your room anymore," the girl said. She still had to look up to her brother, he was really tall after all, but her height was not far off despite her being on her first year of junior high. 

"And? Are you gonna tell her?" Kei said, looking as menacing as he can but having no effect on his stubborn sister. She continued,

"Whatever, anyway-"

She saw Tadashi on the screen of her brother's phone and immediately decided that whatever it was she was about to say was less important. 

"Tadashi!" she yelled, reaching for the phone.

"Hey! Focus for a sec, would you? What are you here for?" Kei raised the phone above her reach, and she gave up immediately knowing there was no way she would ever reach that. 

Hana looked over her shoulder down to where she could see her mother hauling a sack of rice across the first floor to put into the kitchen, now remembering why she disturbed Kei in the first place. 

"Mom needs your help bringing some groceries in. I would help, but I don't want to."

"Ahaha, ahaha," Kei deadpanned. 

"Shut up. Can I talk to Tadashi while you help mom?"

"What the- it's my phone!"

"I'm his friend!"

"I'm his _best_ friend!"

Tadashi, who had stayed silence throughout this whole encounter, finally spoke up and said, 

"Actually, I think I'll turn in for the night. I still have to wake up early tomorrow for some last minute studying, well- last hour studying. I'll talk to you soon though, Hana."

"Alright, I'll see you then!"

Tadashi hung up before Kei could even say goodbye. He couldn't hold it against him, even he himself was a little mad and confused about Kentaro using his dice, so it really was okay for them to take the time to cool down. He headed down the stairs to take the sack of rice from his mother. Hana had gone to the car to help carry some other things too, now feeling bad after witnessing the tension from the call. 

Hopefully everything would be alright tomorrow. 

\----------

Tadashi ran up to Kei as he noticed him walking up the hill to the pole where they would always meet up. 

"What's cooking, good looking?" he said before pulling a crumpled piece of paper from his backpack and handing it to Kei.

His upbeat attitude and the ever-present nickname clearly showed that Tadashi was already over whatever it was that made him feel bad the night before. It only made Kei even more guilty that he wasn't able to do anything to console his friend who probably had to cheer up all by himself.

"Not much, what's up with you? Are you doing okay?"

Tadashi had to pause for a second, not sure if what he just heard was in his imagination or in real life because Kei usually didn't say or ask stuff like that until he saw that Tadashi had started crying.

"O-Oh, well you know," was all Tadashi could say in response to that.

"But anyway," he continued, changing the topic completely, "about that infographic. When did you wanna get started on it?"

Kei sighed heavily as he noticed that Tadashi had evaded his question, answering his question without having to directly reply.

"Well, we can just make it during lunch so that we don't have to bother our parents," Kei mumbled, almost incomprehensibly.

"Wait, your parents are back? From Italy?"

"What? How did you even know they went to Italy?" 

"O-Oh, you told me, like a week ago..." Tadashi explained, remembering that Kei had offhandedly told him about it before.

"Oh. Yeah, they're back. They said they'll stay for a few months to 'spend time with Hana, Kei, and Akiteru' because they're guilty that they missed Akiteru's birthday," Kei shared, pretty sure that it was just another dead promise anyway. He didn't want to come off as edgy or anything, but it was just the sad truth. 

"And," Kei continued, "I don't think they would like it if you went there and belted out your favorite songs to your heart's content. Especially not if they find out that you're just there to keep me company while I do the actual work."

"Then I'll just shut up and put in more work!" Tadashi defended. He really wanted to get to spend more time with Kei, there was just something off about their relationship nowadays, and he needed to find out what it was before it could tear them apart from each other.

"Cute," Tadashi heard Kei say.

It was so out of place and so unbelievable that Tadashi almost wanted to slap himself to wake him up from this surreal dream.

"Sorry, what was that?" he asked.

"I said it was cute that you'd think that," Kei said simply, not wanting to expound more on the topic.

"Look," he said, stopping in his tracks and pushing his glasses up his nose to better see Tadashi's reaction to what he was about to say, "If you can promise me-"

"I promise," Tadashi put his hands together as if he was begging for the right to spend time with his best friend.

"I'm not done," Kei fought back a smile, "If you can promise me that you will try your absolute hardest to keep your voice down while we're working, then maybe I'll try _my_ absolute hardest to persuade my parents to allow you into the house. Sound fai-"

"Yes!! I promise, I promise, I promise-"

Tadashi paused his celebration when he noticed Kei was giving him a look of slight disappointment for yelling immediately after making a promise to not be so loud.

"I.... promise, I promise I promise?" he continued, whispering this time. 

The heavy mood of the morning was finally lifted as Kei cracked his first smile of the day. It was a small smile that showed up for only a short time, but one thing Tadashi knew for sure was that it was genuine. And all he really wanted was for Kei to be happy. 

"Good enough for me," Kei said, now beginning to head up the hill again.

"Great! So I'm thinking we could place a big logo in the center..."

\----------

Tadashi yawned as the clock continued to tick rhythmically and the teacher drawled on about what they were supposed to do next week as her closing statements. 

Tadashi didn't care much for next week. _This_ week was the week that he could show what he was really made of, and he was too damn excited to sit still. 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes...

The bell rang and everyone bid their farewells to the teacher, bowing as they left the classroom while others stayed to clean. Tadashi didn't even have time to stand up before Kei appeared next to his table with his volleyball shoes on. 

"You got those on without Mr. Hanamura noticing? Nice, up top!" Tadashi raised his hand to get Kei to give him a high five. Kei did, unenthusiastically.

"What do you think we're going to do today?" Kei asked, watching his friend stuff all of his books into his backpack.

"I don't know, but I know I'm going to kick ass."

"You're surely in a good mood."

"I have to be! How else am I gonna get myself pumped up for the rest of the day?" Tadashi stood up and loaded his bag onto his back before grabbing Kei's arm and heading for the door.

When they arrived at the gym, they saw exactly what they were expecting to see. Everyone was up and at it again, some working on new things while others focused more on their personal strengths. Warm ups hadn't even begun and most were already sweating. Tadashi almost regret taking such a long time to arrive. 

Kei had disappeared to start running laps around the gym, thinking that if he could finish warming up now, he wouldn't have to join the others and get into the whole fiasco with Kentaro again. 

Tadashi, on the other hand, decided that he was going to talk to the first year to see if he would still be using his dice. Not out of curiosity, but more out of concern. 

He found the energetic first year under a basketball hoop, trying to reach higher and higher on the board. It was almost scary seeing how much he had changed in just two days. Knowing that it was all because of his dice, almost made Tadashi feel better.

"Hey Kentaro," he called out, "What are you going to be focusing on today?" 

"Oh hey, Freckles! Check it out, do you see that chalk mark over there? That's how high my vertical jump is now. Do you see it, do you see it??" Kentaro excitedly shared, completely ignoring Tadashi's question.

"Oh yeahh, that's great! Anyway, I was just wondering about that dice of yours. You aren't planning to use it once practice starts, are you?" Tadashi said, wanting to get to the point.

"Hm? Oh, that old thing?"

Tadashi held his breath as the first year's reaction made it seem like he hadn't planned on using it today after all. 

"Oh yeah, totally! I'm using it right now!"

Tadashi was shocked, but not completely surprised as he was somewhat expecting Kentaro to use it anyway. He wasn't mad about it, just disappointed,

"Ah, I see."

"How high can _you_ jump?" Kentaro asked, but Tadashi wasn't able to answer as Coach Ukai now blew the whistle for them to start warmups. And yes, that included Kei. 

Tadashi got in line now, with Kentaro getting behind him and Kei begrudgingly getting in front of him. Since Coach Ukai had noticed that they had already been active, he decided that they didn't have to jog anymore, and told them to get ready to jog around only half of the distance then sprint once they reached the red mark.

They all got ready to run, planning to show off even during warmups, and Tadashi was no exception .


	11. Break

Hey all, it's been a while since I've posted another chapter to this story. Honestly, I guess I just don't like how it's working out. I feel like I've forgotten what this story was meant to be about in the first place, and I kinda don't know how to continue it, even if I've already mapped the whole thing out. I love the universe and I love the story that I've planned, but it seems like it's just meaningless filler chapters over meaningless filler chapters. And as if that wasn't bad enough there are just so. many. _plot holes._ I've also been thinking about orphaning this work or just deleting it altogether, but again, I just don't know. To anyone who has been waiting for an update until now, hoping that I'd continue, I'm really sorry for giving up, but yeahhh that's all I've got. Cheers!


End file.
